Rewarding independent influencers

ABSTRACT

A method embodiment includes receiving data indicative of a person accessing at least one of a first network-available electronic content or a second network-available electronic content. Also, receiving data indicative of an involvement with respect to possible matters of interest between the person and a third-party. The involvement being independent of the person activating a link to a site owned by the third-party that is included in the first network-available electronic content or in the second network available electronic content. Further, assessing a behavioral influence by the first network-available electronic content and/or the second network-available electronic content on the indicated involvement with respect to the possible matters of interest between the person and a third-party. Also, facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the first network-available electronic content and/or an owner of the second network-available electronic content in response to the assessed behavioral influence.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is related to and claims the benefit of theearliest available effective filing date(s) from the following listedapplication(s) (the “Related Applications”) (e g., claims earliestavailable priority dates for other than provisional patent applicationsor claims benefits under 35 USC §119(e) for provisional patentapplications, for any and all parent, grandparent great-grandparent,etc. applications of the Related Application(s)).

RELATED APPLICATIONS

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/799,460, entitled REWARDING INFLUENCERS namingGary W. Flake; William H. Gates, III; Alexander G. Gounares; W. DanielHillis; Royce A. Levien; Mark A. Malamud; Craig J. Mundie; ChristopherD. Pavane; Richard F. Rashid; Clarence T. Tegreene; Charles Whitmer;Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed Apr. 30, 2007, which iscurrently, co-pending, or is an application of which a currentlyco-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/799,461, entitled DETERMINING INFLUENCERS namingGary W. Flake; William H. Gates, III; Alexander G. Gounares; W. DanielHillis; Royce A. Levien; Mark A. Malamud; Craig J. Mundie; ChristopherD. Payne; Richard F. Rashid; Clarence T. Tegreene; Charles Whitmer;Lowell I,. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed Apr. 30, 2007, which iscurrently co-pending, or is an application of which a currentlyco-pending application is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/811,349, entitled REWARDING INFLUENCERS namingGary W. Flake; William H. Gates, III; Alexander G. Gounares; W. DanielHillis; Royce A. Levien; Mark A. Malamud; Craig J. Mundie; ChristopherD. Payne; Richard F. Rashid; Clarence T. Tegreene; Charles Whitmer;Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed Jun. 7, 2007, which is currentlyco-pending, or is an application of which a currently co-pendingapplication is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/811,402, entitled DETERMINING INFLUENCERS namingGary W. Flake; William H. Gates, III; Alexander G. Gounares; W. DanielHillis; Royce A. Levien; Mark A. Malamud; Craig J. Mundie; ChristopherD. Payne; Richard F. Rashid; Clarence T. Tegreene; Charles Whitmer;Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed Jun. 8, 2007, which is currentlyco-pending, or is an application of which a currently co-pendingapplication is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/824,551, entitled REPORTING INFLUENCE ON APERSON BY NETWORK-AVAILABLE CONTENT naming Gary, W. Flake; William H.Gates, III; Alexander G. Gounares; W. Daniel Hillis; Royce A. Levien;Robert W. Lord; Mark A. Malamud; Craig J. Mundie; Christopher D. Payne;Richard F. Rashid; Clarence T. Tegreene; Charles Whitmer; Lowell L.Wood, Jr. as inventors, filed Jun. 29, 2007, which is currentlyco-pending, or is an application of which a currently co-pendingapplication is entitled to the benefit of the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/824,582, entitled COLLECTING INFLUENCEINFORMATION naming Gary W. Flake; William H. Gates, III; Alexander G.Gounares; W. Daniel Hillis; Royce A. Levien; Robert W. Lord; Mark A.Malarnud; Craig J. Mundie; Christopher D. Payne; Richard F. Rashid;Clarence T. Tegreene; Charles Whitmer; Lowell L. Wood, Jr. as inventors,filed Jun. 29, 2007, which is currently co-pending, or is an applicationof which a currently co-pending application is entitled to the benefitof the filing date.

For purposes of the USPTO extra-statutory requirements, the presentapplication constitutes a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/824,580, entitled DETERMINING AN INFLUENCE ON APERSON BY WEB PAGES naming Gary W. Flake; William H. Gates, III;Alexander G. Gounares; W. Daniel Hillis; Royce A. Levien; Robert W.Lord; Mark A. Malamud; Craig J. Mundie; Christopher D. Payne; Richard F.Rashid; Clarence T. Tegreene; Charles Whitmer; Lowell L. Wood, Jr. asinventors, filed Jun. 29, 2007, which is currently co-pending, or is anapplication of which a currently co-pending application is entitled tothe benefit of the filing date.

The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has published a notice to theeffect that the USPTO's computer programs require that patent applicantsreference both a serial number and indicate whether an application is acontinuation or continuation-in-part. Stephen G. Kunin, Benefit ofPrior-Filed Application, USPTO Official Gazette Mar. 18, 2003, availableat http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/com/sol/log/2003/week11/patbene.htm.The present Applicant Entity (hereinafter “Applicant”) has providedabove a specific reference to the application(s) from which priority) isbeing claimed as recited by statute. Applicant understands that thestatute is unambiguous in its specific reference language and does notrequire either a serial number or any characterization, such as“continuation” or “continuation-in-part,” for claiming priority to U.S.patent applications. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Applicantunderstands that the USPTO's computer programs have certain data entryrequirements, and hence Applicant is designating the present applicationas a continuation-in-part of its parent applications as set forth above,but expressly points out that such designations are not to be construedin any way as any type of commentary and/or admission as to whether ornot the present application contains any new matter in addition to thematter of its parent application(s).

All subject matter of the Related Applications and of any and allparent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc, applications of the RelatedApplications is incorporated herein by reference to the extent suchsubject matter is not inconsistent herewith.

SUMMARY

An embodiment provides method of reporting influence. The methodincludes receiving data indicative of a person accessing at least one ofa first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content. The method also includes receivingdata indicative of an involvement with respect to possible matters ofinterest between the person and a third-party. The involvement beingindependent of the person activating a link to a site owned by thethird-party that is included in the first network-available electroniccontent or in the second network available electronic content. Themethod further includes assessing a behavioral influence by the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or the second network-availableelectronic content on the indicated involvement with respect to thepossible matters of interest between the person and a third-party. Themethod also includes facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner ofthe first network-available electronic content and/or an owner of thesecond network-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence. The method may include receiving data indicativeof an affinity of the person. The method may include maintaininginformational data corresponding to the assessed behavioral influence.The method may include providing access to informational datacorresponding to the assessed behavioral influence. In addition to theforegoing, other method embodiments are described in the claims,drawings, and text that form a part of the present application.

Another embodiment provides a method for reporting influence. The methodincludes receiving data indicative of a person accessing at least one ofa first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content. The method also include receivingdata indicative of an involvement with respect to possible matters ofinterest between the person and a third-party. The data indicative of aninvolvement includes a first data indicative of an involvementindependent of the person activating a link to a site owned by thethird-party that is included in the first network-available electroniccontent or in the second network available electronic content; and asecond data indicative of an involvement caused by the person activatinga link to a site owned by the third-party that is included in the firstnetwork-available electronic content or in the second network availableelectronic content. The method further includes assessing in response tothe first data indicative of an involvement a behavioral influence bythe first network-available electronic content and/or the secondnetwork-available electronic content. The method also includesfacilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence. In addition to the foregoing, other methodembodiments are described in the claims, drawings, and text that form apart of the present application.

Another embodiment provides a computer program product. The computerprogram product includes a computer-readable signal-bearing mediumbearing program instructions. The program instructions are operable toperform an influence evaluation process in a computing device. Theprocess includes receiving data indicative of a person accessing anetwork-available electronic content. The process also includesreceiving data indicative of an involvement with respect to a possiblematter of interest between the person and the third-party. The processfurther includes assessing a behavioral influence with respect to thepossible matter of interest between the person and the third-partyexerted by the network-available electronic content. The assessedbehavioral influence is unresponsive to any involvement between theperson and the third-party that is a consequence of the personactivating a link to the third-party included in the network-availableelectronic content. The process also includes outputting the assessedbehavioral influence in a form usable by a process facilitating deliveryof a benefit to an owner of the network-available electronic content. Inaddition to the foregoing, other computer program product embodimentsare described in the claims, drawings, and text that form a part of thepresent application.

A further embodiment provides a system. The system includes an activitymonitoring module operable to receive data indicative of a personaccessing a network-available electronic content. The system alsoincludes an interaction monitoring module operable to receive dataindicative of an involvement with respect to a possible matter ofinterest between the person and a third-party. The system furtherincludes an evaluation module operable to assess a behavioral influencewith respect to the possible matter of interest between the person andthe third-party exerted by the network-available electronic content. Thebehavioral assessment is not responsive to any involvement between theperson and the third-part), that is a consequence of the personactivating a link to the third-party included in the network-availableelectronic content. The system also includes a compensation moduleoperable to facilitate delivery of a benefit to an owner of thenetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence. The system may include a retention module operableto maintain informational data corresponding to the assessed influence.The system may include a data management module operable to provideaccess to informational data corresponding to the assessed influence.The system may include a computing device operable to communicate with anetwork. In addition to the foregoing, other system embodiments aredescribed in the claims, drawings, and text that form a part of thepresent application.

An embodiment provides a device. The device includes means for receivingdata indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The device also includes means for receiving dataindicative of an involvement with respect to possible matters ofinterest between the person and a third-party. The involvement isindependent of the person activating a link to a site owned by thethird-party that is included in the first network-available electroniccontent or in the second network available electronic content. Thedevice further includes means for assessing a behavioral influence bythe first network-available electronic content and/or the secondnetwork-available electronic content on the indicated involvement withrespect to the possible matters of interest between the person and athird-party. The device also includes means for facilitating delivery ofa benefit to an owner of the first network-available electronic contentand/or an owner of the second network-available electronic content inresponse to the assessed behavioral influence. The device may includemeans for receiving data indicative of an affinity of the person. Thedevice may include means for saving informational data corresponding tothe assessed influence. The device may include means for providingaccess to informational data corresponding to the assessed influence. Inaddition to the foregoing, other device embodiments are described in theclaims, drawings, and text that form a part of the present application.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be inany way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments,and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and featureswill become apparent by reference to the drawings and the followingdetailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a thin computing device inwhich embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a general-purposecomputing system in which embodiments may be implemented;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary system in which embodiments may beimplemented;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary network environment in which embodimentsmay be implemented;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary operational flow;

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow ofFIG. 5;

FIG. 7 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flowof FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow of FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow ofFIG. 5;

FIG. 10 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operationalflout of FIG. 5;

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow ofFIG. 5;

FIG. 12 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flowof FIG. 5;

FIG. 13 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow of FIG.

FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow ofFIG. 5;

FIG. 15 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flowof FIG. 5;

FIG. 16 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow of FIG. 5;

FIG. 17 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow of FIG.

FIG. 18 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow of FIG. 5.

FIG. 19 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow ofFIG. 5;

FIG. 20 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary of operational flowof FIG.,5;

FIG. 21 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flowof FIG. 5,

FIG. 22 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow of FIG. 5;

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary computer program product;

FIG. 24 illustrates an exemplary system;

FIG. 25 illustrates a device;

FIG. 26 illustrates an example of a system that may serve as a contextfor introducing one or more processes, systems or other articles;

FIG. 27 illustrates an exemplary operational flow;

FIG. 28 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 29 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 30 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 31 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 32 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27.

FIG. 33 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 34 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 35 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 36 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 37 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 38 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 39 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow of FIG. 27;

FIG. 40 illustrates an exemplary computing device operable tocommunicate over a network;

FIG. 41 illustrates an exemplary computer program product;

FIG. 42 illustrates an exemplary device;

FIG. 43 illustrates another system that may serve as a context forintroducing one or more processes, systems or other articles describedherein;

FIG. 44 illustrates a system;

FIG. 45 illustrates an example operational flow for reporting influence;

FIG. 46 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flowdescribed in FIG.45;

FIG. 47 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow describedin FIG. 45;

FIG. 48 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flowdescribed in FIG. 45;

FIG. 49 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flowdescribed in FIG. 45;

FIG. 50 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flowdescribed in FIG. 45;

FIG. 51 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow describedin FIG. 45;

FIG. 52 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flowdescribed in FIG. 45;

FIG. 53 illustrates an operational flow of reporting influence on aperson;

FIG. 54 illustrates an operational flow for reporting an influence ofelectronic content;

FIG. 55 illustrates a system;

FIG. 56 illustrates an example computer program product;

FIG. 57 illustrates an example apparatus;

FIG. 58 illustrates an example system;

FIG. 59 illustrates an example operational flow for reporting a possibleinfluential electronic content;

FIG. 60 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 59;

FIG. 61 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow of FIG.59;

FIG. 62 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow of FIG.55;

FIG. 63 illustrates an operational flow for reporting influence on aperson;

FIG. 64 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 63;

FIG. 65 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow of FIG.63;

FIG. 66 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow of FIG.63;

FIG. 67 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 63;

FIG. 68 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 59:

FIG. 69 illustrates an example system in which embodiments may beimplemented;

FIG. 70 illustrates an example computer program product;

FIG. 71 illustrates an influence reporting apparatus;

FIG. 72 illustrates an example operational flow for assessing aninfluence of an electronic content on a person;

FIG. 73 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 68;

FIG. 74 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 68;

FIG. 75 illustrates an example system;

FIG. 76 illustrates an example operational flow for influence reporting;

FIG. 77 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 76;

FIG. 78 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 76;

FIG. 79 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 76;

FIG. 80 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 76;

FIG. 81 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 71;

FIG. 82 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 71.

FIG. 83 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 71;

FIG. 84 illustrates an example system;

FIG. 85 illustrates an example computer program product; and

FIG. 86 illustrates an example of an apparatus.

FIG. 87 illustrates an example of a system 4000;

FIG. 88 illustrates an example of an operational flow representingoperations related to influence evaluation;

FIG. 89 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the activity monitoringoperation 41 10 of the operational flow of FIG. 88;

FIG. 90 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the activitymonitoring operation 41 10 of the operational flow of FIG. 88;

FIG. 91 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the interactionmonitoring operation 4140 of the operational flow of FIG. 88;

FIG. 92 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 88;

FIG. 93 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 88;

FIG. 94 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow ofFIG. 88;

FIG. 95 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow of FIG. 88;

FIG. 96 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow of FIG.88;

FIG. 97 illustrates an embodiment of the operational flow of FIG. 88;

FIG. 98 illustrates an example computer program product;

FIG. 99 illustrates an example system; and

FIG. 100 illustrates an example device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings,similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless contextdictates otherwise. The illustrated embodiments described in thedetailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting.Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made,without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matterpresented here.

FIG. 1 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief,general description of an environment in which embodiments may beimplemented. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system that includes a thincomputing device 20, which may be included in an electronic device thatalso includes a device functional element 50. For example, theelectronic device may include any item having electrical and/orelectronic components playing a role in a functionality of the item,such as a limited resource computing device, an electronic pen, ahandheld electronic writing device, a digital camera, a scanner, anultrasound device, an x-ray machine, a non-invasive imaging device, acell phone, a printer, a refrigerator, a car, and an airplane. The thincomputing device 20 includes a processing unit 21, a system memory 22,and a system bus 23 that couples various system components including thesystem memory 22 to the processing unit 21. The system bus 23 may be anyof several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memorycontroller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety ofbus architectures. The system memory includes read-only memory (ROM) 24and random access memory (RAM) 25. A basic input/output system (BIOS)26, containing the basic routines that help to transfer informationbetween sub-components within the thin computing device 20, such asduring start-up, is stored in the ROM 24. A number of program modulesmay be stored in the ROM 24 and/or RAM 25, including an operating system28, one or more application programs 29, other program modules 30 andprogram data 31.

A user may enter commands and information into the computing device 20through input devices, such as a number of switches and buttons,illustrated as hardware buttons 44, connected to the system via asuitable interface 45. Input devices may further include atouch-sensitive display screen 32 with suitable input detectioncircuitry 33. The output circuitry of the touch-sensitive display 32 isconnected to the system bus 23 via a video driver 37. Other inputdevices may include a microphone 34 connected through a suitable audiointerface 35, and a physical hardware keyboard (not shown). In additionto the display 32, the computing device 20 may include other peripheraloutput devices, such as at least one speaker 38.

Other external input or output devices 39, such as a joystick, game pad,satellite dish, scanner or the tile may be connected to the processingunit 21 through a USB port 40 and USB port interface 41, to the systembus 23. Alternatively, the other external input and output devices 39may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game portor other port. The computing device 20 may further include or be capableof connecting to a flash card memory (not shown) through an appropriateconnection port (not shown). The computing device 20 may further includeor be capable of connecting with a network through a network port 42 andnetwork interface 43 and through wireless port 46 and correspondingwireless interface 47 may be provided to facilitate communication withother peripheral devices, including other computers, printers, and so on(not shown). It will be appreciated that the various components andconnections shown are exemplary and other components and means ofestablishing communications links may be used.

The computing device 20 may be primarily designed to include a userinterface. The user interface may include a character, a key-based,and/or another user data input via the touch sensitive display 32. Theuser interface may include using a stylus (not shown). Moreover, theuser interface is not limited to an actual touch-sensitive panelarranged for directly receiving input, but may alternatively or inaddition respond to another input device such as the microphone 34. Forexample, spoken words may be received at the microphone 34 andrecognized. Alternatively, the computing device 20 may be designed toinclude a user interface having a physical keyboard (not shown).

The device functional elements 50 are typically application specific andrelated to a function of the electronic device, and is coupled with thesystem bus 23 through an interface (not shown). The functional elementsmay typically perform a single well-defined task with little or no userconfiguration or setup, such as a refrigerator keeping food cold, a cellphone connecting with an appropriate tower and transceiving voice ordata information, and a camera capturing and saving an image.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a general-purposecomputing system in which embodiments may be implemented, shown as acomputing system environment 100. Components of the computing systemenvironment 100 may include, but are not limited to, a computing device110 having a processing unit 120, a system memory 130, and a system bus121 that couples various system components including the system memoryto the processing unit 120. The system bus 121 may be any of severaltypes of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, aperipheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of busarchitectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architecturesinclude Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video ElectronicsStandards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (PCI) bus, also known as Mezzanine bus.

The computing system environment 100 typically includes a variety ofcomputer-readable media products. Computer-readable media may includeany media that can be accessed by the computing device I 0 and includeboth volatile and nonvolatile media, removable and non-removable media.By way of example, and not of limitation, computer-readable media mayinclude computer storage media and communications media. Computerstorage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storageof information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data. Computer storage media includes, but isnot limited to, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory, or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks(DVD), or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium which can be used to store the desired information and which canbe accessed by the computing device 110. In a further embodiment, acomputer storage media may include a group of computer storage mediadevices. In another embodiment, a computer storage media may include aninformation store. In another embodiment, an information store mayinclude a quantum memory, a photonic quantum memory, and/or atomicquantum memory. Combinations of any of the above may also be includedwithin the scope of computer-readable media.

Communications media may typically embody computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in amodulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transportmechanism and include any information delivery media. The term“modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of itscharacteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode informationin the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communicationsmedia include wired media such as a wired network and a direct-wiredconnection and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, optical, andinfrared media.

The system memory 130 includes computer storage media in the form ofvolatile and nonvolatile memory such as ROM 131 and RAM 132. A RAM mayinclude at least one of a DRAM, an EDO DRAM, a SDRAM, a RDRAM, a VRAM,and/or a DDR DRAM. A basic input/output system (BIOS) 133, containingthe basic routines that help to transfer information between elementswithin the computing device 10, such as during start-up, is typicallystored in ROM 131. RAM 132 typically contains data and program modulesthat are immediately accessible to or presently being operated on byprocessing unit 120. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 2illustrates an operating system 134, application programs 135, otherprogram modules 136, and pro-ram data 137. Often, the operating system134 offers services to applications programs 135 by the way of one ormore application programming interfaces (APIs) (not shown). Because theoperating system 134 incorporates these services, developers ofapplications programs 135 need not redevelop code to use the services.Examples of APIs provided by operating systems such as Microsoft's“WINDOWS” are well known in the art.

The computing device 110 may also include other removable/non-removable,volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media products. By way of exampleonly, FIG. 2 illustrates a non-removable non-volatile memory interface(hard disk interface) 140 that reads from and writes for example tonon-removable, non-volatile magnetic media. FIG. 2 also illustrates aremovable non-volatile memory interface 150 that, for example, iscoupled to a magnetic disk drive 151 that reads from and writes to aremovable, non-volatile magnetic disk 152, and/or is coupled to anoptical disk drive 155 that reads from and writes to a removable,non-volatile optical disk 156, such as a CD ROM. Otherremovable/nomemovable, volatile/non-volatile computer storage media thatcan be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are notlimited to, magnetic tape cassettes, memory cards, flash memory cards,DVDs, digital video tape, solid state RAM, and solid state ROM. The harddisk drive 141 is typically connected to the system bus 121 through anon-removable memory interface, such as the interface 140, and magneticdisk drive 151 and optical disk drive 155 are typically connected to thesystem bus 121 by a removable nonvolatile memory interface, such asinterface 150.

The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed aboveand illustrated in FIG. 2 provide storage of computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, and other data for thecomputing device 110. In FIG. 2, for example, hard disk drive 141 isillustrated as storing an operating system 144, application programs145, other program modules 146 and program data 147. Note that thesecomponents can either be the same as or different from the operatingsystem 134, application programs 135, other program modules 136, andprogram data 137. The operating system 144, application programs 145,other program modules 146, and program data 147 are given differentnumbers here to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are differentcopies. A user may enter commands and information into the computingdevice 110 through input devices such as a microphone 163, keyboard 162,and pointing device 161, commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball, ortouch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include a joystick, gamepad, satellite dish, and scanner. These and other input devices areoften connected to the processing unit 120 through a user inputinterface 160 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected byother interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port,or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 191 or other type of displaydevice is also connected to the system bus 121 via an interface, such asa video interface 190. In addition to the monitor, computers may alsoinclude other peripheral output devices such as speakers 197 and printer196, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface 195.

The computing system environment 100 may operate in a networkedenvironment using logical connections to one or more remote computers,such as a remote computer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personalcomputer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device, or othercommon network node, and typically includes many or all of the elementsdescribed above relative to the computing device 110, although only amemory storage device 181 has been illustrated in FIG. 2. The logicalconnections depicted in FIG. 2 include a local area network (LAN) 171and a wide area network (WAN) 173, but may also include other networkssuch as a personal area network (PAN) (not shown); Such networkingenvironments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computernetworks, intranets, and the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computing systemenvironment 100 is connected to the LAN 171 through a network interfaceor adapter 170. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computingdevice 110 typically includes a modem 172 or other means forestablishing communications over the WAN 173, such as the Internet. Themodem 172, which ma)y be internal or external, may be connected to thesystem bus 121 via the user input interface 160, or via anotherappropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modulesdepicted relative to the computing device 110, or portions thereof, mallbe stored in a remote memory storage device. By way of example, and notlimitation, FIG. 2 illustrates remote application programs 195 asresiding on computer storage medium 181. It will be appreciated that thenetwork connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishingcommunications link between the computers may be used.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary system 200 in which embodiments may beimplemented. The exemplary system includes a computing system couplableto a network and operable to provide electronic content, such as aserver 201. In an embodiment, the server may include an applicationserver, audio server, database server, fax server, file server, intranetserver, mail server, merchant server, modem server, network accessserver, network server, print server, proxy server, remote accessserver, telephony server, terminal server, video server, and/or Webserver. In another embodiment, the server may include a networkintermediary, a network switch, and/or a router. Server functionalitymay be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, and/or a combinationthereof. Server functionality may be provided by a computing device thatalso provides other functionality. The network may include an electronicnetwork, an optical network, and/or a combination of optical andelectronic networks.

In a configuration, the server 201 typically includes at least oneprocessing unit 202 and system memory 204. System memory 204 typicallyincludes operating system platform 205 and one or more program modules206 running on operating system. In addition to the program modules 206,a server application 207 may also be running on the operating system.The server application 207 may be operable to deliver electronic contentand/or files to applications via a protocol, and may include and/orinteract with other computing devices, application servers,applications, and application interfaces (APIs) residing in otherapplications. For example, the server application may include a Webserver operable to deliver Web pages and/or electronic content to Webbrowser applications via HTTP protocols.

The server 201 may have additional features or functionality. Forexample, server may also include additional data storage devices(removable and/or non-removable), as illustrated in FIG. 3 by removablestorage 209 and non-removable storage 210. System memory 204, removablestorage 209 and non-removable storage 210 are all examples of computerstorage media. The server may include input device(s) 212 and outputdevice(s) 214. The server also contains communication connections 216that allow the device to communicate with and perform a serviceassociated with a network, including communicating with other serversand/or with other computing device, illustrated as other computingdevice(s) 218. Communication connections 216 are one example ofcommunication media.

FIGS. 1-3 are intended to provide a brief, general description of anillustrative and/or suitable exemplary environments in which embodimentsmay be implemented. An exemplary system may include the thin computingdevice 20 of FIG. 1, the computing system environment 100 of FIG. 2,and/or the server of FIG. 3. FIGS. 1-3 are examples of a suitableenvironment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to thestructure, scope of use, or functionality of an embodiment. A particularenvironment should not be interpreted as having any dependency orrequirement relating to any one or combination of components illustratedin an exemplary environment. For example, in certain instances, one ormore elements of an environment may be deemed not necessary and omitted.In other instances, one or more other elements may be deemed necessaryand added. Further, it will be appreciated that device(s) and/orenvironment(s) described herein may include numerous electrical,optical, mechanical, and/or digital components that may necessary tooperate the device, but are not needed to illustrate the subject matterdescribed herein. As such, some of these electrical, optical,mechanical, and/or digital components may be omitted from thespecification for clarity.

In the description that follows, certain embodiments may be describedwith reference to acts and symbolic representations of operations thatare performed by one or more computing devices, such as the computingdevice 110 of FIG. 2. As such, it will be understood that such acts andoperations, which are at times referred to as being computer-executed,include the manipulation by the processing unit of the computer ofelectrical signals representing data in a structured form. Thismanipulation transforms the data or maintains them at locations in thememory system of the computer, which reconfigures or otherwise altersthe operation of the computer in a manner well understood by thoseskilled in the art. The data structures in which data is maintained arephysical locations of the memory that have particular properties definedby the format of the data. However, while an embodiment is beingdescribed in the foregoing context, it is not meant to be limiting asthose of skill in the art will appreciate that the acts and operationsdescribed hereinafter may also be implemented in hardware.

Embodiments may be implemented with numerous other general-purpose orspecial-purpose computing devices and computing system environments orconfigurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments,and configurations that may be suitable for use with an embodimentinclude, but are not limited to, personal computers, handheld or laptopdevices, personal digital assistants, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumerelectronics, network, minicomputers, server computers, game servercomputers, web server computers, mainframe computers, and distributedcomputing environments that include any of the above systems or devices.

Embodiments may be described in a general context of computer-executableinstructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer.Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects,components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks orimplement particular abstract data types. An embodiment may also bepracticed in a distributed computing environment where tasks areperformed by remote processing devices that are linked through acommunications network. In a distributed computing environment, programmodules may be located in both local and remote computer storage mediaincluding memory storage devices.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary network environment 300 in whichembodiments may be implemented. The exemplary environment includesnetworks, illustrated as a network 301, and client machines, illustratedas client machine 310. A fabric of the network may include networkintermediaries, illustrated as a network intermediary 340 running on aplatform (not shown). In an embodiment, the client machine includes acomputing device used by a human user. In another embodiment, the clientmachine includes a computing device used by a human user to communicatein a peer-to-peer environment (P2P), and/or to communicate in acloud-to-cloud environment (C2C). In a further embodiment, the clientmachine includes a computing device used by a human user to communicatewith a server. The client machine may include the thin computing device20 illustrated in FIG. 1, and/or the computing device 110 illustrated inFIG. 2.

The exemplary environment 300 also includes servers, illustrated as acontent server 320 in an embodiment, the content server is operable toprovide electronic content (illustrated as eContent 1 and/or eContent 2to one or more client machines. In another embodiment, the contentserver includes the server 201 illustrated in FIG. 3. In a furtherembodiment, the content server(s) includes a node in P2P and/or a C2Cnetwork. The node may include the thin computing device 20 illustratedin FIG. 1 and/or the computing device 110 illustrated in FIG. 2. Theexemplary environment also includes a third-party sites, illustrated asa third-party site 330. The third-party site may include a merchantsite, such as amazon.com for books, a manufacturer site, such assubaru.com for automobiles, a religious institution, such ascatholic.org and/or hinduism.com, and/or a political site, such asrnc.org and/or democrats.org. The exemplary environment also includessearch engine sites, illustrated as a search engine site 350. The searchengine site may include a general search engine site, such as google.comand/or live.com. In another embodiment, the search engine site mayinclude a topical search site, such as HONMedhunt and/or FindLaw.com.

The exemplary environment 300 may also include an influence determinatormachine 360, an intermediary machine 370, and/or a page tag informationprocessor. Each of these machines may be operable to receive data and/orinformation gathered by at least one of the client machine 310, thecontent server 320, the third-party site 330, and/or the networkintermediary 340, and to produce an output useable in assessing aninfluence on a person using the client machine by a content of thecontent server.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary operational flow 500. After a startoperation, the operational flow moves to a navigation content operation510. The navigation content operation receives data indicative of aperson accessing at least one of a first network-available electroniccontent having a first-electronic-content portion or a secondnetwork-available electronic content having a second-electronic-contentportion. An engagement data operation 540 receives data indicative of aninvolvement between the person and a third-party. A recognitionoperation 560 facilitates delivery of a benefit to an owner of thefirst-electronic content or an owner of the second electronic content inresponse to an assessed influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party. The operational flow then movesto an end operation.

In an embodiment, the exemplary operational flow 500 may be performed ata computing device. For example, the exemplary operational flow may beperformed by at least one of the client machine 310, the content server320, the third-party site 330, the search engine site 350, the influencedeterminator machine 360, the intermediary machine 370, and/or the pagetag information processor 380 of FIG. 4. In an embodiment, at least aportion of the data may be received from a platform or an applicationrunning on the platform of the device performing the operational flow500. In an embodiment, the operational flow may be performed by thecontent server using data received from the client machine and receivedfrom an application running on a platform of the content server. Inanother embodiment, the operational flow may be performed by the contentserver using data from both the client machine and the third-party site.In a further embodiment, the operational flow may be performed by theinfluence determinator machine using data received from at least one ofthe client machine, the content server, the search engine site, and/orthe third-party site. In another embodiment, the operational flow, maybe performed by the search engine platform using data received from atleast one of the client machine, the content server, and/or thethird-party site.

FIG. 4 may be used to illustrate a use of an embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 500. For example, a person may use their computingdevice, illustrated as the client machine 310, to access over theInternet and browse blog pages hosted by a content server, illustratedas the content server 320 and eContent 1 and eContent 2 respectivelycreated by owner 1 and owner 2. By way of further example, in asituation where the person is looking to buy a new truck they may accesseContent 1 and eContent 2 looking for recommendations and reviews oftrucks. The person may spend five minutes accessing eContent 1 becausethey like the content or find it helpful, and only ten seconds accessingeContent 2 because they do not find the content helpful. The navigationcontent operation 510 in FIG. 5 may receive data indicative of theperson accessing eContent 1 having a first-electronic-content portionpertaining to Ford and GM trucks and eContent 2 having asecond-electronic-content portion pertaining to Ford and Toyota trucks.The navigation operation mall receive data indicative of respectiveaccess times and other aspects of the person is access. The person mayuse their computing device to become involved over the Internet with athird party, such as a Ford sales site. They ma)y order delivery ofprinted promotional materials, a quote on a new truck, arrange a testdrive, seek an address of a.Ford dealer, and/or order a truck.Alternatively, the), may become involved by visiting a dealer showroom,taking a test drive, and/or purchasing a truck. The engagement dataoperation 540 may receive data indicative of an involvement between theperson and a third party, such as Ford. The data may be received fromany number of sources, for example, such as the client machine 310, thethird-party site 330, the network intermediary 340, the search enginesite 350, and/or the page tag information processor 380. Alternatively,the data indicative of an involvement between the person and Ford may bemanually gathered by a sales person at a dealership visited by theperson. The recognition operation 560 facilitates delivery of a benefitto an owner of the first-electronic content or an owner of the secondelectronic content in response to an assessed influence by thefirst-electronic-content portion and/or the second-electronic-contentportion on the involvement between the person and the third-party. Forexample, an assessed influence by the first-electronic-content portionand/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvement betweenthe person and the third-party may indicate that thefirst-electronic-content portion likely influenced the involvementbetween the person and the third-party, which in this example, is Ford.The recognition operation may facilitate a benefit to the owner of thefirst-electronic-content portion in response to the assessed influence.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow 500of FIG. 5. The navigation content operation 510 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 512, and/or an operation 514. The operation 512 receivesdata indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion relevant to the third-party or a second network-availableelectronic content having a second-electronic-content portion relevantto the third-party. The operation 514 receives data indicative of avisitor accessing at least one of a first network-available electroniccontent having a first-electronic-content portion or a secondnetwork-available electronic content having a second-electronic-contentportion.

FIG. 7 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flow500 of FIG. 5. The navigation content operation 510 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 516, and/or an operation 518. The operation 516receives data indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The first electronic contentincluding digital content that can be transmitted over a computernetwork. The operational flow 518 receives data indicative of a personencountering at least one of a first network-available electroniccontent having a first-electronic-content portion or a secondnetwork-available electronic content having a second-electronic-contentportion. The encountering may include indirectly accessing at least oneof a first network-available electronic content having afirst-electronic-content portion or a second network-availableelectronic content having a second-electronic-content portion. Forexample, indirectly accessing may include viewing a summary, a precis,and/or an aggregation of content that includes at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content.

FIG. 8 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow 500 of FIG. 5. The navigation content operation 510 may include atleast one additional operation. The at least one additional operationmay include an operation 522, and/or an operation 524. The operation 522receives data indicative of a person viewing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The operation 524 receives dataindicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The first network-availableelectronic content including at least one of a publicly availableelectronic content, a limited availability electronic content, and/or aprivately available electronic content.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow 500of FIG. 5. The navigation content operation 510 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 526, and/or an operation 528. The operation 526 receivesdata indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The first network-availableelectronic content including at least one of a static electroniccontent, and/or a dynamic electronic content. The operation 528 receivesdata indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The first network-availableelectronic content including at least one of a static digital content,and/or a dynamic digital content.

FIG. 10 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flow500 of FIG. 5. The navigation content operation 510 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 532, and/or an operation 534. The operation 532receives data indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The first network-availableelectronic content including at least one of a human perceivablecontent, a textual content, a visual content, an audio content, a musiccontent, and/or a graphic content. The operation 534 receives dataindicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The first network-availableelectronic content including at least one of an electronic document, anelectronic work, an electronically-stored information, music, video, aWeb document, an email, and/or an instant message. In an embodiment, theWeb document may include at least one of a Web site, a Web page, aWeblog, a blog, a blog entry, and/or a web element.

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow 500of FIG. 5. The engagement data operation 540 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 542, an operation 544, and/or an operation 546. Theoperation 542 receives data indicative of at least one of an activity,interaction, purchase, vote, contribution, performance, and/orrelationship between the person and the third-party. The operation 544receives data indicative of a behavior by the person with respect to thethird-party. In another embodiment, data indicative of a behavior by theperson with respect to the third party includes hits, page views,visits, sessions, generating requests, viewing, time between visits,and/or impressions. The operation 546 receives data indicative useablein inferring an involvement between the person and the third-party.

FIG. 12 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flow500 of FIG. 5. The recognition operation 560 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 562, and/or an operation 564. The operation 562 facilitatesdelivery of at least one of a compensation, privilege, and/or reward toat least one of an owner of the first-electronic content or an owner ofthe second electronic content in response to an assessed influence bythe first-electronic-content portion and/or thesecond-electronic-content portion on the involvement between the personand the third-party. The operation 564 facilitates delivery of a benefitto an owner of the first-electronic content or an owner of the secondelectronic content in response to an assessed influence by thefirst-electronic-content portion and/or the second-electronic-contentportion on the involvement between the person and the third-party. Ameasure of the benefit is determined by at least one of another person,and/or the third-party. In an embodiment, the measure of a benefit mayinclude at least one of an amount, degree, and/or quantity.

FIG. 13 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow 500 of FIG. 5. The recognition operation 560 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 566, and/or an operation 569. The operation 566facilitates deliver), of a benefit to an owner of the first-electroniccontent or an owner of the second electronic content in response to anassessed influence by the first-electronic-content portion and/or thesecond-electronic-content portion on the involvement between the personand the third-party, the benefit responsive to a benefit determinationalgorithm. In an alternative embodiment, the benefit determinationalgorthim includes a benefit contribution determination algorithin. Theoperation 568 facilitates delivery of a benefit to an owner of thefirst-electronic content or an owner of the second electronic content inresponse to an assessed influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party. The owner includes at least oneof an author, a content author, a putative content author, an assignee,a designee, a delegee, a poster, a creator, an editor, an associate, asponsor, a host, an aggregator, a website owner, a server owner, agroup, and/or at least one of cohort. In an alternative embodiment, acohort may include a social networking site, for example Facebook,MySpace, Classmates, YouTube, and/or Friendster.

FIG. 14 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow 500of FIG. 5. The recognition operation 560 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 572, and/or an operation 574. The operation 572 facilitatesdelivery of a benefit to -an owner of the first-electronic content or anowner of the second electronic content in response to an assessedinfluence with respect to a subject of interest to the third-party bythe first-electronic-content portion and/or thesecond-electronic-content portion on the involvement between the personand the third-party. The operation 574 facilitates delivery of a benefitto an owner of the first-electronic content or an owner of the secondelectronic content in response to an assessed influence trend by thefirst-electronic-content portion and/or the second-electronic-contentportion on the involvement between the person and the third-party.

FIG. 15 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flow500 of FIG. 5. The recognition operation 560 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 576, and/or an operation 578. The operation 576 facilitatesdelivery of a benefit to an owner of the first-electronic content or anowner of the second electronic content in response to an assessedinfluence on a behavior of the person by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion. In an embodiment,an assessed influence may include generalized sales figures, electionvotes, and/or enrollment. In another embodiment, an assessed influencemay include sales figures, election votes, and/or enrollment related tothe person. The operation 578 facilitates delivery of a first benefit toan owner of the first-electronic content and a second benefit to anowner of the second electronic content in response to an assessedinfluence by the first-electronic-content portion and/or thesecond-electronic-content portion on the involvement between the personand the third-party.

FIG. 16 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplar), operationalflow 500 of FIG. 5. The recognition operation 560 ma), include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 582, and/or an operation 584. The operation 582facilitates delivery of a first benefit to an owner of thefirst-electronic content and a second benefit to an owner of the secondelectronic content. The first benefit and the second benefit are inresponse to an assessed influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party. A difference between the firstbenefit and the second benefit being responsive to an evaluation of aninfluence of the first-electronic-content portion and/or an evaluationof an influence of the second-electronic-content portion. In anembodiment, the influence evaluation may include an algorithmicallyimplemented influence evaluation. In another embodiment, the influenceevaluation may include an artificial intelligence implemented influenceevaluation. The operation 584 facilitates delivery of a first benefit toan owner of the first-electronic content and a second benefit to anowner of the second electronic content. The first benefit and the secondbenefit are in response to an assessed influence bar thefirst-electronic-content portion and/or the second-electronic-contentportion on the involvement between the person and the third-party. Adifference between the first benefit and the second benefit isresponsive to at least one of a scaling, a weighting, a synthesis,and/or an analysis of an influence of the first-electronic-contentportion and/or an evaluation of an influence of thesecond-electronic-content portion.

FIG. 17 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow 500 of FIG. 5. The recognition operation 560 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 586, and/or an operation 587. The operation 586facilitates delivery of a first benefit to an owner of thefirst-electronic content and a second benefit to an owner- of the secondelectronic content. The first benefit and the second benefit are inresponse to an assessed influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party. A difference between the firstbenefit and the second benefit is responsive to an evaluation of aninfluence of the first-electronic-content portion and/or an evaluationof an influence of the second-electronic-content portion, a differencebetween the first benefit and the second benefit responsive to a noveltyadded by the first-electronic content portion and/or a novelty added bythe second-electronic content portion. The operation 587 facilitatesdelivery of a first benefit to an owner of the first-electronic contentand a second benefit to an owner of the second electronic content inresponse to an assessed influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party. The first benefit and the secondbenefit respectively are responsive to an evaluation of an influence ofthe first-electronic-content portion and/or an evaluation of aninfluence of the second-electronic-content portion. In an embodiment,the first benefit and the second benefit are respectively responsive toat least one of an algorithm implemented evaluation, and/or anartificial intelligence implemented evaluation. In another embodiment,the first and second benefit are respectively responsive to at least oneof at least one of a comparison, a relative allocation, a difference,and/or distribution of an influence of the first-electronic-contentportion and/or an evaluation of an influence of thesecond-electronic-content portion.

FIG. 18 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow 500 of FIG. 5. The recognition operation 560 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 588, and/or an operation 589. The operation 588facilitates delivery of a benefit to an owner of the first-electroniccontent or an owner of the second electronic content. The benefit is inresponse to an assessed influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party. The assessed influence isresponsive to the received data indicative of a person accessing a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion and/or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The operation 589 facilitatesdelivery of a benefit to an owner of the first-electronic content or anowner of the second electronic content in response to an assessedinfluence by the first-electronic-content portion and/or thesecond-electronic-content portion on the involvement between the personand the third-party. The assessed influence is responsive to thereceived data indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion and/or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion; and the received data indicative ofan involvement between the person and the third-party. The assessedinfluence may be responsive to one or more other factors.

FIG. 19 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow 500of FIG. 5. The operational flow may include at least one additionaloperation, such as a kinship operation 590. The kinship operationreceives data indicative of an affinity of the person. In an alternativeembodiment, the data indicative of an affinity of the person is useableat the recognition operation 560 in assessing an influence by thefirst-electronic-content portion and/or the second-electronic-contentportion on the involvement between the person and the third-party.

FIG. 20 illustrates an embodiment of the exemplary operational flow 500of FIG. 5. The kinship operation 590 may include at least one additionaloperation. The at least one additional operation may include anoperation 592 and/or an operation 594. The operation 592 receives dataindicative of at least one of an express, and/or an inferred affinity ofthe person. The operation 594 receives data indicative of at least oneof an affinity characteristic, and/or an affiliation of the person, suchas the person's age category (young, middle age, senior), and/or theperson's income (low income, median income, high income).

FIG. 21 illustrates another embodiment of the exemplary operational flow500 of FIG. 5. The kinship operation 590 may include at least oneadditional operation, such as the operation 595. The operation 595facilitates delivery of a benefit to an owner of the first-electroniccontent or an owner of the second electronic content in response to anassessed influence by the first-electronic-content portion and/or thesecond-electronic-content portion on the involvement between the personand the third-party. The assessed influence is responsive to thereceived data indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The assessed influence is alsoresponsive to the received data indicative of an affinity of the person.

FIG. 22 illustrates a further embodiment of the exemplary operationalflow 500 of FIG. 5. The operational flow 500 may include may include atleast one additional operation 596. The at least one additionaloperation 596 may include an operation 597 and/or an operation 598. Theoperation 597 maintains informational data corresponding to the assessedinfluence. The operation 598 provides access to informational datacorresponding to the assessed influence.

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary computer program product 700. Theprogram product includes a computer-readable signal-bearing medium 710bearing program instructions 720 operable to perform an influenceevaluation process in a computing device. The process includes receivingdata indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The process also includes receivingdata indicative of an involvement between the person and thethird-party, and assessing an influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party.

In an alternative embodiment, the process of the program instructions720 further includes receiving data indicative of an affinity of theperson 722. In another embodiment, the process of the programinstructions further includes outputting the assessed influence in aform usable by a process facilitating delivery of a benefit to an ownerof the first electronic content or an owner of the second electroniccontent 724. In a further embodiment, the process of the programinstructions further includes maintaining informational datacorresponding to the assessed influence 726. In another embodiment, theprocess of the program instructions further includes providing access tomaintained informational data corresponding to the assessed influence728.

In another embodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearing mediumincludes computer storage medium 732. In a further embodiment, thecomputer-readable signal-bearing medium includes communication medium734.

FIG. 24 illustrates an exemplary system 800. The system includes acomputing device 801 operable to communicate with a network (not shown).In an embodiment, the computing device may include the computing device20 described in conjunction with FIG. 1, and/or the computing device 110described in conjunction with FIG. 2. Communication by the computingdevice with a network may be implemented using a communications module830. The communications module may include a wired, wireless, and/oroptical communication capability. The computing device also includes anactivity monitoring module 810, an interaction monitoring module 812,and an evaluation module 814. The activity monitoring module is operableto receive data indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The interaction monitoring module is operable toreceive data indicative of an involvement between the person and thethird-party. The evaluation module is operable to assess an influence bythe first-electronic-content and/or the second-electronic-content on theinvolvement between the person and the third-party.

In another embodiment, the computing device 801 includes a processor840, a storage media 850, and/or a display 852. In a further embodiment,the computing device further includes a retention module 816 operable tomaintain informational data corresponding to the assessed influence. Inanother embodiment, the computing device further includes an outputmodule 818 operable to provide access to informational datacorresponding to the assessed influence.

In an embodiment, the computing device 801 operable to communicate witha network further includes a computing device responsive to human input,and operable to display human perceivable content and communicate with anetwork. In another embodiment, the computing device operable tocommunicate with a network includes a computing device operable toprovide electronic content to a network. In a further embodiment, thecomputing device operable to communicate with a network further includesan intermediate computing device operable to communicate with a network.

In an embodiment, the activity monitoring module 810 further includes anactivity monitoring module 811 operable to receive a first dataindicative of a first person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The activity monitoring module is further operableto receive a second data indicative of a second person accessing atleast one of the first network-available electronic content or thesecond network-available electronic content. In another embodiment, theinteraction monitoring module 812 further includes an interactionmonitoring module (not shown) operable to operable to receive dataindicative of an involvement between the first person and thethird-party and/or the second person and the third party. In anotherembodiment, the evaluation module 814 further includes an evaluationmodule (not shown) operable to assess an influence by thefirst-electronic-content and/or the second-electronic-content on theinvolvement between the first person and the third-party, and/or on theinvolvement between the second person and the third-party.

In an embodiment, the computing device 801 operable to communicate witha network further includes a network intermediary device operable tocommunicate with a network. In another embodiment, the computing deviceoperable to communicate with a network further includes a computingdevice under a control of the third-party and operable to communicatewith a network.

FIG; 25 illustrates a device 900. The device includes means 910 forreceiving data indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion. The device also includes means 914for receiving data indicative of an involvement between the person andthe third-party. The device further includes means 918 for facilitatingdelivery of a benefit to an owner of the first-electronic content or anowner of the second electronic content in response to an assessedinfluence by the first-electronic-content portion and/or thesecond-electronic-content portion on the involvement between the personand the third-party.

In an embodiment, the device 900 further includes means 922 forreceiving data indicative of an affinity of the person. In anotherembodiment, the device further includes means 924 for savinginformational data corresponding to the assessed influence. In a furtherembodiment, the device includes means 926 for providing access toinformational data corresponding to the assessed influence.

FIG. 26 illustrates an example of a system that may serve as a contextfor introducing one or more processes, systems or other articles.Primary system 1000 may include one or more instances of outputs 1020,1030 or implementations 1060, 1070 that may be held or transmitted byinterfaces 1040, conduits 1090, storage devices 1091, memories 1092,holding devices 1094, or the like. In various embodiments as describedherein, for example, one or more instances of implementation output data1021, 1022, 1023, 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027, 1028, 1029 or implementationcomponents 1071, 1072, 1073, 1074, 1075, 1076, 1077, 1078, 1079 may eachbe expressed in any aspect or combination of software, firmware, orhardware as signals, data, designs, functional expressions,instructions, or the like. The interface(s) 1040 may include one or moreinstances of input devices 1043, output devices 1045, integratedcircuits 1048, lenses 1049, transmitters 1052, reflectors 1057, antennas1058, receivers 1059, or the like for handling data or communicatingwith local users or with network 1080 via linkage 1005, for example.Several variants of primary system 1000 are described below withreference to one or more instances of repeaters 1081, communicationsatellites 1083, servers 1084, processors 1085, routers 1087, or otherelements of network 1080.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that some list items may alsofunction as other list items. In the above-listed types of media, forexample, some instances of interface(s) 1040 may include conduits 1090,or may also function as storage devices that are also holding devices1094. Transmitters 1052 may likewise include input devices orbidirectional user interfaces, in many implementations of interface(s)1040. Each such listed term should not be narrowed by any implicationfrom other terms in the same list but should instead be understood inits broadest reasonable interpretation as understood by those skilled inthe art.

Several variants described herein refer to device-detectable“implementations” such as one or more instances of computer-readablecode, transistor or latch connectivity layouts or other geometricexpressions of logical elements, firmware or software expressions oftransfer functions implementing computational specifications, digitalexpressions of truth tables, or the like. Such instances can, in someimplementations, include source code or other human-readable portions.Alternatively or additionally, functions of implementations describedherein may constitute one or more device-detectable “implementationoutputs” such as decisions, manifestations, side effects, results,coding or other expressions, displayable images, data files, dataassociations, statistical correlations, streaming signals, intensitylevels, frequencies or other measurable attributes, packets or otherencoded expressions, or the like from invoking or monitoring theimplementation as described herein.

FIG. 27 illustrates an exemplary operational flow 1100. After a startoperation, the operational flow moves to data gathering operation 1105.In an embodiment, the data gathering operation includes an operationalflow that receives data from at least one of a content site dataoperation 1110, a computing device data operation 1140, a search enginesite data operation 1160, or a beneficiary site data operation 11 70.The receiving content site data operation includes receiving contentsite data gathered through a process running on a platform of a contentsite, and indicative of communication between the content site and acomputing device responsive to a human user input. The computing devicedata operation includes receiving computing device data gathered througha process running on a platform of the computing device, and indicativeof communication between the computing device responsive to a human userinput and at least one of the content site, a search engine site, and/ora beneficiary site. In an embodiment, the beneficiary site and thecontent site are independent of each other. The search engine site dataoperation includes receiving search engine site data gathered through aprocess running on a platform of the search engine site, and indicativeof communication between the search engine site and the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input. The beneficiary site data operationincludes receiving beneficiary site data gathered through a processrunning on a platform of the beneficiary site, and indicative ofcommunication between the computing device responsive to a human userinput and the beneficiary site.

In an embodiment, the data gathering operation 1105 described aboveincludes receiving at least one class of data. This text describes thedata gathering operation by using the word “or” in accord with aconvention analogous to when “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used.In general, such a convention is intended in the sense one having skillin the art would understand the convention—(e.g., “an operational flowreceiving at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limitedto an operational flow receiving A alone; receiving B alone; receiving Calone; receiving both A and B; receiving both A and C; receiving both Band C; receiving A, B, and C; and so on). For example, in anotherembodiment, the data gathering operation receives a single instance ofcontent site data. In a further embodiment, the data gathering-operationreceives content site data and beneficiary site data. In anotheroperation, the data gathering operation receives two instances ofcomputing device data and one instance of search engine site data.

The operational flow 1100 includes an influence evaluation operation1180. The influence evaluation operation determines a correlationbetween (a) the communication between the content site and a computingdevice responsive to a human user input and (b) the communicationbetween the computing device responsive to a human user input and thebeneficiary site. The operational flow then moves to an end operation.

In an embodiment, the exemplary operational flow 1100 may be performedat a computing device. In another embodiment, FIG. 4 may be used toillustrate an environment in which the exemplary operational flow may beimplemented. For example, the exemplary operational flow ma)y beperformed by at least one of the client machine 310, a content siteillustrated as the content server 320, a beneficiary site illustrated asthe third-part), site 330, the search engine site 350, the influencedeterminator machine 360, the intermediary machine 370, and/or the pagetag information processor 380 of FIG. 4. In yet another embodiment, atleast a portion of the data may be outputted by a platform and/or anapplication running on the platform of the device performing theoperational flow 1100. In a further embodiment, the operational flow maybe performed by the content server using data outputted by the clientmachine and outputted by an application running on a platform of thecontent server. In another embodiment, the operational flow may beperformed by the content server using data from both the client machineand the third-party site. In a further embodiment, the operational flowmay be performed by the influence determinator machine using dataoutputted by at least one of the client machine, the content server, thesearch engine site, and/or the third-party site. In another embodiment,the operational flow may be performed by the search engine platformusing data outputted by at least one of the client machine, the contentserver, and/or the third-party site. In an embodiment, an instance ofdata may be received directly or indirectly from a machine that gatheredit. For example, if the operational flow is being performed at theinfluence determinator machine, the computing device data 1110 may bereceived by the content server, which then provides the computing devicedata to the influence determinator machine.

In an embodiment of the operational flow 1100, the platform of thecontent site and the platform of the computing device include an atleast substantially common platform. For example, a platform may includean operating system architecture, such as Microsoft Windows, UNIX.LINUX, Solaris, and/or Mac OS X. By way further example, a platform mayinclude an application and/or a family of applications. A family ofapplications may include Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, LiveSearch, and/or Visio. Another family of applications ma)y include theGoogle search engine, Gmail, Google Calendar, and/or Google Docs &Spreadsheets. A further family of applications may include a generalfamily of applications, and/or a specialized family of applications. Inanother example, a platform may include a hardware platform. In afurther example, a hardware platform may include a gaming platformand/or a particular chip architecture. In another example, a hardwareplatform may include a platform of combination of a switch, a router,and/or a sniffer.

In another embodiment of the operational flow 1100, the platform of thecontent site and the platform of the computing device include an atleast substantially common platform. In a further embodiment, theplatform of the content site and the platform of the computing deviceinclude an at least substantially common platform family.

In an embodiment of the operational flow 1100, the platform of thecontent site and the platform of the search engine site include an atleast substantially common platform. In another embodiment, the platformof the content site and the platform of the search engine site includean at least substantially common platform family. In a furtherembodiment, the platform of the content site and the platform of thebeneficiary site include an at least substantially common platform. Inanother embodiment, the platform of the content site and the platform ofthe beneficiary site include an at least substantially common platformfamily. In a further embodiment, the platform of the computing deviceand the platform of the search engine site include an at leastsubstantially common platform. In another embodiment, the platform ofthe computing device and the platform of the search engine site includean at least substantially common platform family. In a furtherembodiment, the platform of the computing device and the platform of thebeneficiary site include an at least substantially common platform.

In an embodiment of the operational flow 1100, the platform of thecomputing device and the platform of the beneficiary site include an atleast substantially common platform family. In another embodiment, theplatform of the search engine site and the platform of the beneficiarysite include an at least substantially common platform. In a furtherembodiment, the platform of the search engine site and the platform ofthe beneficiary site include an at least substantially common platformfamily. In another embodiment, the process running on a platform of thecontent site and the process running on a platform of the computingdevice include an at least substantially common process. In a furtherembodiment, the process running on a platform of the content site andthe process running on a platform of the computing device include atleast substantially coordinating processes. In another embodiment, theprocess running on a platform of the content site and the processrunning on a platform of the search engine site include an at leastsubstantially common process. In a further embodiment, the processrunning on a platform of the content site and the process running on aplatform of the search engine site include at least substantiallycoordinating processes. In another embodiment, the process running on aplatform of the content site and the process running on a platform ofthe beneficiary site include an at least substantially common process.

In an embodiment of the operational flow I 100, the process running on aplatform of the content site and the process running on a platform ofthe beneficiary site include at least substantially coordinatingprocesses. In another embodiment, the process running on a platform ofthe computing device and the process running on a platform of the searchengine site include an at least substantially common process. In afurther embodiment, the process running on a platform of the computingdevice and the process running on a platform of the search engine siteinclude at least substantially coordinating processes. In anotherembodiment, the process running on a platform of the computing deviceand the process running on a platform of the beneficiary site include anat least substantially common process. In a further embodiment, theprocess running on a platform of the computing device and the processrunning on a platform of the beneficiary site include at leastsubstantially coordinating processes.

In an embodiment of the operational flow 1100, the process running on aplatform of the search engine site and the process running on a platformof the beneficiary site include an at least substantially commonprocess. In another embodiment, the process running on a platform of thesearch engine site and the process running on a platform of thebeneficiary site include at least substantially coordinating processes.

Referring now also to the context of FIG. 26, in some embodiments, flow1100 may be performed by one or more instances of server 1084 remotefrom primary system 1000 but operable to cause output device(s) 1045 toreceive and present results via linkage 1005. Alternatively oradditionally, any included instances of device-detectable data 1021-1025may be borne by one or more conduits 1090, holding devices 1094,integrated circuits 1048, or the like as described herein. Such data mayoptionally be configured for transmission by a semiconductor chip orother embodiment of integrated circuit 1048 that contains or isotherwise operatively coupled with one or more antennas 1058 (in aradio-frequency identification tag, for example).

In some Variants, flow 1100 may be implemented entirely within primarysystem 1000, optionally as a stand-alone system. Operation 1105 may beimplemented by configuring component 1071 as logic for receiving contentsite data gathered through a process running on a platform of a contentsite, and indicative of communication between the content site and acomputing device responsive to a human user input, for example, such asby including special-purpose instruction sequences orspecial-purpose-circuit designs for this function. Output data 1021 fromsuch a component in primary system 1000 or network 1080 may be recordedby configuring available portions of storage device(s) 1091.Alternatively or additionally, such specific output data malt betransmitted by configuring transistors, relays, or other conduits 1090of primary system 1000 to transfer it to component 1075, for example.

Alternatively or additionally, one or more instances of component 1072may perform operation 1105 via implementation as logic for receivingcomputing device data gathered through a process running on a platformof the computing device, and indicative of communication between thecomputing device responsive to a human user input and at least one ofthe content site, a search engine site, and/or a beneficiary site, forexample. Implementation output data 1022 from such a component inprimary system 1000 or network 1080 may be sent in some form tocomponent 1075, for example.

Alternatively or additionally, one or more instances of component 1073may perform operation 1105 via implementation as logic for receivingbeneficiary site data gathered through a process running on a platformof the beneficiary site, and indicative of communication between thecomputing device responsive to a human user input and the beneficiarysite, for example. Implementation output data 1023 from such a componentin primary system 1000 or network 1080 may be routed to component 1075,for example.

Alternatively or additionally, one or more instances of component 1074may perform operation 1105 via implementation as logic for receivingsearch engine site data gathered through a process running on a platformof the search engine site, and indicative of communication between thesearch engine site and the computing device responsive to a human userinput, for example. implementation output data 1024 from such acomponent in primary system 1000 or network 1080 may be routed (directlyor indirectly) to component 1075, for example.

At some time after such data is received as described above to one ormore of whichever components 1071-1074 may have been included inimplementation 1060, one or more instances of component 1075 may actupon it. In some variants, one or more of optional components 1071-1074may be omitted or ignored, for example, even in a context in which anincluded one or more of components 1071-1074 can respectively detect oneor more of items 1110, 1140, 1160, 1170. Component 1075 may respond byperforming operation 1180, for example, if configured as logic fordetermining a correlation between (a) the communication between thecontent site and the computing device responsive to a human user input;and (b) the communication between the computing device responsive to ahuman user input and the beneficiary site. Output 1020 from flow 1100may (optionally) include other implementation output data 1021-1025 asdescribed herein. Such output 1020 may, for example, be processed asdescribed herein, recorded into available portions of storage device(s)1091, or routed (directly or indirectly) through linkage 1005. Eachportion of implementation 1060 may likewise include one or moreinstances of software, hardware, or the like implementing logic that maybe expressed in several respective forms as described herein orotherwise understood by those skilled in the art.

Referring again now to FIG. 5, also in reference to the context of FIG.26, some instance of flow 500 may likewise be implemented entirelywithin primary system 1000 in some variants. Operation 510 may beimplemented by configuring component 1076 as logic for receiving dataindicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content having a first-electronic-contentportion or a second network-available electronic content having asecond-electronic-content portion, for example, such as by includingspecial-purpose instruction sequences or special-purpose-circuit designsfor this function. Output data 1026 from such a component in primarysystem I 000 or network 1080 may be recorded into available portions ofstorage device(s) 1091 or sent to component 1078, for example. Component1077 may perform operation 540 via implementation as logic for receivingdata indicative of an involvement between the person and a third-party,for example. Implementation output data 1027 from such a component inprimary system 1000 or network 1080 may be recorded into availableportions of storage device(s) 1091 or sent to component 1078, forexample. Component 1077 may perform operation 560 via implementation aslogic for facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of thefirst-electronic content or an owner of the second electronic content inresponse to an assessed influence by the first-electronic-contentportion and/or the second-electronic-content portion on the involvementbetween the person and the third-party. Output 1030 from flow 500 maylikewise include other data 1028, 1029 as described herein. Each portionof implementation 1060 may likewise include one or more instances ofsoftware, circuitry, or the like implementing logic that may beexpressed in several respective forms as described herein or otherwiseunderstood by those skilled in the art.

In some embodiments, output device 1045 may indicate an occurrence offlow 1100 concisely as a decision, an evaluation, an effect, anhypothesis, a probability, a notification, or some other usefultechnical result. For example, such “indicating” may comprise such modesas showing, signifying, acknowledging, updating, explaining,associating, or the like in relation to any past or ongoing performanceof such actions upon the common item(s) as recited. Such indicating mayalso indicate one or more specifics about the occurrence: the parties ordevice(s) involved, a description of the method or performance modesused, any sequencing or other temporal aspects involved, indications ofresources used, location(s) of the occurrence, implementation versionindications or other update-indicative information, or any other suchcontextual information that may be worthwhile to provide at potentialoutput destinations.

Concise indication may occur, for example, in a context in which atleast some items of data 1021-1029 are unavailable or unimportant, or inwhich a recipient may understand or access portions of data 1021-1029without receiving a preemptive explanation of how it was obtained. Bydistilling output 1020 at an “upstream” stage (which may compriseintegrated circuit 1048, for example, in some arrangements),downstream-stage media (such as other elements of network 1080, forexample) may indicate occurrences of various methods described hereinmore effectively. Variants of flow 1100, for example, may be enhanced bydistillations described herein, especially in bandwidth-limitedtransmissions, security-encoded messages, long-distance transmissions,complex images or compositions of matter bearing other such expressions.

In some variants, a local implementation comprises a service operablefor accessing a remote system running a remote implementation. In someembodiments, such “accessing” may include one or more instances ofestablishing or permitting an interaction between the server and a localembodiment such that the local embodiment causes or uses anotherimplementation or output of one or more herein-described functions atthe server. Functioning as a web browser, remote terminal session, orother remote activation or control device, for example, interface(s)1040 may interact with one or more primary system users via input andoutput devices 1043, 1045 so as to manifest an implementation in primarysystem 1000 via an interaction with server 1084, for example, running asecondary implementation of flow 1100. Such local implementations maycomprise a visual display supporting a local internet service to theremote server, for example. Such a remote server may control orotherwise enable one or more instances of hardware or software operatingthe secondary implementation outside a system, network, or physicalproximity of primary system I 000. For a building implementing primarysystem 1000, for example, “remote” devices may include those in othercountries, in orbit, or in adjacent buildings. In some embodiments,“running an implementation” may include invoking one or more instancesof software, hardware, firmware, or the like atypically constituted oradapted to facilitate methods or functions as described herein. Forexample, primary system 1000 running an implementation of flow 1100 maybe a remote activation of a special-purpose computer program resident onserver 1084 via an internet browser session interaction through linkage1005, mediated by input device 1043 and output device 1045.

In some variants, some or all of components 1071-1079 may be borne invarious data-handling elements—e.g., in one or more instances of storagedevices 1091, in memories 1092 or volatile media, passing throughlinkage 1005 with network 1080 or other conduits 1090, in one or moreregisters or data-holding devices 1094, or the like. For example, suchprocessing or configuration may occur in response to user data or thelike received at input device 1043 or may be presented at output device1045. Instances of input devices 1043 may (optionally) include one ormore instances of cameras or other optical devices, hand-held systems orother portable systems, keypads, sensors, or the like as describedherein. Output device(s) 1045 may likewise include one or more instancesof image projection modules, touch screens, wrist-wearable systems orthe like adapted to be worn while in use, headphones and speakers,eyewear, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), actuators, lasers, organic orother light-emitting diodes, phosphorescent elements, portions of(hybrid) input devices 1043, or the like.

A device-detectable implementation of variants described herein withreference to for 1100, for example, may be divided into severalcomponents 1071-1079 carried by one or more instances of active modulessuch as signal repeaters 1081, communication satellites 1083, servers1084 processors 1085, routers 1087, or the like. For example, in someembodiments, component 1072 may be borne by an “upstream” module (e.g.,repeater I 08 or the like) while or after component 071 is borne in a“downstream” module (e.g., another instance of repeater 1081,communication satellite 1083, server 1084, or the like). Such downstreammodules may “accept” such bits or other portions of implementation 1060or implementation 1070 sequentially, for example, such as by amplifying,relaying, storing, checking, or otherwise processing what was receivedactively. Sensors and other “upstream” modules may likewise “accept” rawdata, such as by measuring physical phenomena or accessing one or moredatabases.

In some embodiments, a medium bearing data (or other such event) may be“caused” (directly or indirectly) by one or more instances of prior orcontemporaneous measurements, decisions, transitions, circumstances, orother causal determinants. Any such event may likewise depend upon oneor more other prior, contemporaneous, or potential determinants, invarious implementations as taught herein. In other words, such eventsmay occur “in response” to both preparatory (earlier) events andtriggering (contemporaneous) events in some contexts. Output 1020 mayresult from more than one component of implementations 1060, 1070 ormore than one operation of flow 1100, for example.

In some embodiments, such integrated circuits 1048 may comprisetransistors, capacitors, amplifiers, latches, converters, or the like ona common substrate of a semiconductor material, operable to performcomputational tasks or other transformations. An integrated circuit maybe application-specific (“ASIC”) in that it is designed for a particularuse rather than for general purpose use. An integrated circuit maylikewise include one or more instances of memory circuits, processors,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA's), antennas, or other components,and may be referred to as a system-on-a-chip (“SoC”).

In some embodiments, one or more instances of integrated circuits orother processors may be configured to perform auditory patternrecognition. In FIG. 26, for example, instances of the one or more inputdevices 1043 may include a microphone or the like operable to provideauditory samples in data 1021-1029. Some form or portion of such outputmay be provided remotely, for example, to one or more instances ofneural networks or other configurations of remote processors 1085operable to perform automatic or supervised speech recognition,selective auditoria data retention or transmission, or other auditorypattern recognition, upon the samples. Alternatively or additionallysuch sound-related data may include annotative information relatingthereto such as a capture time or other temporal indications, capturelocation or other source information, language or other contentindications, decibels or other measured quantities, pointers to relateddata items or other associative indications, or other data aggregationsor distillations as described herein.

In some embodiments, one or more instances of integrated circuits orother processors may be configured for optical image patternrecognition. In FIG. 26, for example, instances of lenses 1049 or otherinput devices 1043 may include optical sensors or the like operable toprovide one or more of geometric, hue, or optical intensity informationin data 1021-1029. Some form or portion of such output may be providedlocally, for example, to one or more instances of optical characterrecognition software, pattern recognition processing resources, or otherconfigurations of integrated circuits 1048 operable to perform automaticor supervised image recognition, selective optical data retention ortransmission, or the like. Alternatively or additionally suchimage-related data may include annotative information relating theretosuch as a capture time or other temporal indications, capture locationor other source information, language or other content indications,pointers to related data items or other associative indications, orother data aggregations or distillations as described herein.

In some embodiments, one or more instances of integrated circuits orother processors may be configured to perform linguistic patternrecognition. In FIG. 43, for example, instances of input devices 1043may include keys, pointing devices, microphones, sensors, referencedata, or the like operable to provide spoken, written, or other symbolicexpressions in data 1021-1029. Some form or portion of such output maybe provided locally, for example, to one or more instances oftranslation utilities, compilers, or other configurations of integratedcircuits 1048 operable to perform automatic or supervised programming orother language recognition, selective linguistic data retention ortransmission, or the like. Alternatively or additionally suchlanguage-related data may include annotative information relatingthereto such as a capture time or other temporal indications, capturelocation or other source information, language or other contentindications, pointers to related data items or other associativeindications, or other data classifications, aggregations, ordistillations as described herein.

In some embodiments, antennas 1058 or receivers 1059 may include adevice that is the receiving end of a communication channel as describedherein. For example, such a receiver may gather a signal from adedicated conduit or from the environment for subsequent processingand/or retransmission. As a further example, such antennas or otherreceivers may include one or more instances of wireless antennas, radioantennas, satellite antennas, broadband receivers, digital subscriberline (DSL) receivers, modem receivers, transceivers, or configurationsof two or more such devices for data reception as described herein orotherwise known.

In one variant, two or more respective portions of output data 1021-1029may be sent from server 1084 through respective channels at varioustimes, one portion passing through repeater 1081 and another throughrouter 1087. Such channels may each bear a respective portion of a dataaggryegation or extraction, a publication, a comparative analysis ordecision, a record selection, digital subscriber content, statistics orother research information, a resource status or potential allocation,an evaluation, an opportunity indication, a test or computationalresult, or another output 1020, 1030 of interest. Such distributed mediamay be implemented as an expedient or efficient mode of bearing suchportions of output data to a common destination such as interface 1040or holding device 1094. Alternatively or additionally, some such datamay be transported by moving a medium (carried on storage device 1091,for example) so that only a small portion (a purchase or other accessauthorization, for example, or a contingent or supplemental module) istransferred via linkage 1005.

In some embodiments, one or more instances of signal repeaters 1081 mayinclude a device or functional implementation that receives a signal andtransmits some or all of the signal with one or more of an alteredstrength or frequency, or with other modulation (e.g., anoptical-electrical-optical amplification device, a radio signalamplifier or format converter, a wireless signal amplifier, or thelike). A repeater may convert analog to digital signals or digital toanalog signals, for example, or perform no conversion. Alternatively oradditionally, a repeater may reshape, retime or otherwise reorder anoutput for transmission. A repeater may likewise introduce a frequencyoffset to an output signal such that the received and transmittedfrequencies are different. A repeater also ma)l include one or moreinstances of a relay, a translator, a transponder, a transceiver, anactive hub, a booster, a noise-attenuating filter, or the like.

In some embodiments, such communication satellite(s) 1083 may beconfigured to facilitate telecommunications while in a geosyncironousorbit, a Molniya orbit, a low, earth orbit, or the like. Alternativelyor additionally, a communication satellite may receive or transmit, forexample, telephoniy signals, television signals, radio signals,broadband telecommunications signals, or the like.

In some variants, processor 1085 or any components 1071-1079 ofimplementations 1060, 1070 ma)y (optionally) be configured to performflow variants as described herein with reference to any of FIGS. 6-22.An occurrence of such a variant can be expressed as a computation, atransition, or as any other items of data 1021-1029 described herein,for example. Such output 1020, 1030 can be generated, for example, bydepicted components of primary system 1000 or network 1080 including oneor more features as described with reference to any of FIGS. 1-4, 23, 94or 41.

FIG. 28 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving content site dataoperation 1110 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1112, anoperation 1114, an operation 1116, and/or an operation 1118. At theoperation 1112, the receiving content site data operation includesreceiving content site data gathered through a process running on aplatform of a content site. The content site data is indicative ofcommunication between the content site and a computing device responsiveto a human user input. The process includes a process that is at leastone of bundled with, integrated into, and/or registered with theplatform of the content site. At the operation 1114, the receivingcontent site data operation includes receiving content site datagathered through a process running on a platform of a content site. Thecontent site data is indicative of communication between the contentsite and the computing device responsive to a human user input. At theoperation 1116, the receiving content site data operation includesreceiving content site data gathered through a process running on aplatform of a content site. The content site data is indicative ofcommunication between the content site and a computing device responsiveto a human user input. The content site is operable to provide contentdeliverable to the person. The deliverable content including at leastone of a: document; review; critique; comment; rating; aggregations ofreviews, comments, and/or critiques; consumer-generated-media; blog;newsgroup; message board; and/or discussion forum. At the operation1118, the receiving content site data operation includes receivingcontent site data gathered through a process running on a platform of acontent site. The content data is indicative of communication betweenthe content site and a computing device responsive to a human userinput, and related to digital work deliverable to the person.

FIG. 29 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving content site dataoperation 1110 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1122, anoperation 1124, and/or an operation 1126. At the operation 1122, thereceiving content site data operation includes receiving content sitedata gathered through a process running on a platform of a content site.The content site data is indicative of communication between the contentsite and a computing device responsive to a human user input, andrelated to at least one of a publicly available electronic content, alimited publicly available electronic content, and/or a privatelyavailable electronic content that is deliverable to the person. At theoperation 1124, the receiving content site data operation includesreceiving content site data gathered through a process running on aplatform of a content site. The content site data is indicative ofcommunication between the content site and a computing device responsiveto a human user input, and related to an electronic content deliverableto the person that includes at least one of an electronic document, anelectronic work, an electronically-stored information, a Web document anemail, and/or an instant message. In another embodiment, the Webdocument includes a Web site content, a Web page, a Weblog, and/or ablog. At the operation 1126, the receiving content site data operationincludes receiving content site data gathered through a process runningon a platform of a content site. The content site data indicative ofcommunication between the content site and a computing device responsiveto a human user input and related to an electronic content deliverableto the person that includes at least one of a human perceivable content,a textual content, a visual content, an audio content, and/or agraphical content.

FIG. 30 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving content site dataoperation 1110 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1128, and/or anoperation 132. At the operation 1128, the receiving content site dataoperation includes receiving content site data gathered through aprocess running on a platform of a content site. The content site dataindicative of communication between the content site and a computingdevice responsive to a human user input. The content site data isrelated to at least one of a transaction, history, search string, searchresult, and/or computing-device action associated with the computingdevice responsive to a human user input. At the operation 1132, thereceiving content site data operation includes receiving content sitedata gathered through a process running on a platform of a content site,indicative of communication between the content site and a computingdevice responsive to a human user input. The content site data isfurther indicative of at least one of a program resident on thecomputing device, a process registered with an operating system of thecomputing device, a cookie present in computing device, data indicativeof an affinity of the human user, and/or an information descriptive ofan aspect of the computing device.

FIG. 31 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving computing device dataoperation 1140 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1142, and/or anoperation 1144. At the operation 1142, the receiving computing devicedata operation includes receiving computing device data gathered througha process running on a platform of the computing device. The computingdevice data indicative of communication between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and at least one of the content site,,a search engine site, and/or a beneficiary site. The computing devicedata further indicative of at least one of a program resident on thecomputing device, a process registered with an operating system of thecomputing device, a cookie present in computing device, data indicativeof an affinity of the human user, and/or an information descriptive ofan aspect of the computing device. At the operation 1144, the receivingcomputing device data operation includes receiving computing device datagathered through a process running on a platform of the computingdevice. The computing device data indicative of communication betweenthe computing device responsive to a human user input and at least oneof the content site, a search engine site, and/or a beneficiary site.The computing device data further indicative of at least one of aprogram resident on the computing device, a process registered with anoperating system of the computing device, a cookie present in computingdevice, data indicative of an affinity of the human user, and/or aninformation descriptive of an aspect of the computing device as providedby a process running on a platform of the computing device.

FIG. 32 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving computing device dataoperation 1140 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1146, and/or anoperation 1148. At the operation 1146, the receiving computing devicedata operation includes receiving computing device data gathered througha process running on a platform of the computing device, and indicativeof communication between the computing device responsive to a human userinput and at least one of the content site, a search engine site, and/ora beneficiary site. The communication includes communication related tothe computing device responsive to a human user input receiving adigital work deliverable to the person. At the operation 1I 48, thereceiving computing device data operation includes receiving computingdevice data gathered through a process running on a platform of thecomputing device. The computing device data indicative of communicationbetween the computing device responsive to a human user input and atleast one of the content site, a search engine site, and/or abeneficiary site. The communication includes communication related tothe computing device responsive to a human user input receiving at leastone of a document; review; critique; comment; rating; aggregations ofreviews, comments, and/or critiques; a consumer-generated-media; blog;newsgroup; message board; and/or discussion forum deliverable to theperson.

FIG. 33 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving computing device dataoperation 1140 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1152, and/or anoperation 1154. At the operation 1152, the receiving computing devicedata operation includes receiving computing device data gathered througha process running on a platform of the computing device. The computingdevice data indicative of communication between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and at least one of the content site, asearch engine site, and/or a beneficiary site. The communicationincludes communication related to the computing device and responsive toa transaction, histori, search string, search result, and/orcomputing-device action associated with the computing device. In analternative embodiment, the communication related to the computingdevice includes communication related to the computing device receivingat least one of an electronic content deliverable to the person, whichincludes at least one of an electronic document an electronic work, anelectronically-stored information, a Web document, an email, and/or aninstant message. At the operation 1154, the receiving computing devicedata operation includes receiving computing device data gathered througha process running on a platform of the computing device. The computingdevice data indicative of communication between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and at least one of the content site, asearch engine site, and/or a beneficiary site. The communicationincludes communication related to the computing device receiving atleast one of an electronic content deliverable to the person, a humanperceivable content, a textual content, a visual content, an audiocontent, and/or a graphical content.

FIG. 34 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving computing device dataoperation 1140 may include at least one additional operation, such asthe operation 1156. At the operation 1156, the receiving computingdevice data operation includes receiving computing device data gatheredthrough a process running on a platform of the computing device. Thecomputing device data indicative of communication between the computingdevice responsive to a human user input and at least one of the contentsite, a search engine site, and/or a beneficiary site. The communicationincludes communication related to the computing device receiving atleast one of a transaction, history, search string, search result,and/or computing-device action associated with computing device.

FIG. 35 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving search engine site dataoperation 1160 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1162, and/or anoperation 1164. At the operation 1162, the receiving search engine sitedata operation includes receiving search engine site data gatheredthrough a process running on a platform of the search engine site. Thesearch engine site data indicative of communication between the searchengine site and the computing device responsive to a human user input.The communication includes communication related to at least one of atransaction, history, search string, search result, and/or an actionassociated with the computing device. At the operation 1164, thereceiving search engine site data operation includes receiving searchengine site data gathered through a process running on a platform of thesearch engine site. The search engine site data indicative ofcommunication between the search engine site and the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input. The communication includescommunication related to at least one of a program resident on thecomputing device, a process registered with an operating system of thecomputing device, a cookie present in computing device, data indicativeof an affinity of the human user, and/or an information descriptive ofan aspect of the computing device.

FIG. 36 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving search engine site dataoperation 1160 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1166. At theoperation 1166, the receiving search engine site data operation includesreceiving search engine site data gathered through a process running ona platform of the search engine site. The search engine site dataindicative of communication between the search engine site and thecomputing device responsive to a human user input. The communicationincludes communication related to at least one of a program resident onthe computing device, a process registered with an operating system ofthe computing device, a cookie present in computing device, dataindicative of an affinity of the human user, and/or an informationdescriptive of an aspect of the computing device provided by a processrunning on a platform of the computing device.

FIG. 37 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The receiving beneficiary site dataoperation 1170 may include at least one additional operation. The atleast one additional operation may include an operation 1172, and/or anoperation 1174. At the operation I 172, the receiving beneficiary sitedata operation includes receiving beneficiary site data gathered througha process running on a platform of the beneficiary site. The beneficiarysite data indicative of at least one of communication associated with apurchase, communication associated with a vote, communication associatedwith a fund raising, and/or communication associated with a transactionbetween the computing device responsive to a human user input and thebeneficiary site. At the operation 1174, the receiving beneficiary sitedata operation includes receiving beneficiary site data gathered througha process running on a platform of the beneficiary site. The beneficiarysite data indicative of communication between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and the beneficiary site. Thecommunication between the computing device and the beneficiary site isinitiated by a human action unrestricted by an electronic content of thecontent site. For example, the communication between the computingdevice and the beneficiary site is not responsive to or initiated by aclickthrough or other executable link provided by the content site.

FIG. 38 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The influence evaluation operation1180 may include at least one additional operation. The at least oneadditional operation may include an operation 182, an operation 184,and/or an operation 1186. At the operation 1182, the influenceevaluation operation includes at least one of estimating, approximating,and/or inferring a correlation between (a) the communication between thecontent site and a computing device responsive to a human user input and(b) the communication between the computing device responsive to a humanuser input and the beneficiary site. At the operation 1184, theinfluence evaluation operation includes predicting a future behavior ofa person in response to a determined correlation between (a) thecommunication between the content site and a computing device responsiveto a human user input and (b) the communication between the computingdevice responsive to a human user input and the beneficiary site. In anembodiment, the person includes the human user, a plurality of personsin an affinity group that includes the human user, and/or a hypotheticalhuman. At the operation 1186, the influence evaluation operationincludes determining at least one of a linear correlation, arelationship, a non-linear correlation, a fuzzy correlation, and/or afuzzy relationship between (a) the communication between the contentsite and a computing device responsive to a human user input and (b) thecommunication between the computing device responsive to a human userinput and the beneficiary site.

FIG. 39 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the exemplaryoperational flow 1100 of FIG. 27. The exemplary operational flow 1100may include at least one additional operation 1190. The at least oneadditional operation may include an operation 1192, an operation 1194,and/or an operation 1196. The operation 1192 assists delivery of acompensation to the holder of the content site in response to thedetermined degree of correlation. In an alternative embodiment, thecompensation to the holder may be determined in response to thedetermined degree of correlation. In an embodiment, the holder of thecontent site may include at least one of an owner, developer, operator,proprietor, blogger, and/or designated recipient of any benefit. Theoperation 1194 maintains informational data corresponding to thedetermined correlation. The operation 1196 provides access to aninformational data corresponding to the determined correlation.

FIG. 40 illustrates an exemplary 1300 computing device 1300 operable tocommunicate over a network. The computing device includes acommunications monitoring module 1310 and an evaluation module 1312. Thecommunications monitoring module is operable to receive at least one ofcontent site data, computing device data, search engine site data, orbeneficiary site data. The content site data gathered through a processrunning on a platform of a content site, and indicative of communicationbetween the content site and a computing device responsive to a humanuser input. The computing device data gathered through a process runningon a platform of the computing device, and indicative of communicationbetween the computing device responsive to a human user input and atleast one of the content site, a search engine site, and/or abeneficiary site. The search engine site data gathered through a processrunning on a platform of the search engine site, and indicative ofcommunication between the search engine site and the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input. The beneficiary site data gatheredthrough a process running on a platform of the beneficiary site, andindicative of communication between the computing device responsive to ahuman input and the beneficiary site. The evaluation module 1312 isoperable to determine a correlation of (a) the communication between thecontent site and a computing device responsive to a human user input;and (b) the communication between the computing device responsive to ahuman user input and the beneficiary site.

In an alternative embodiment, the computing device 1300 further acomputer-readable media configurable by data outputted by at least oneof the communications monitoring module and/or the evaluation module.The computer-readable media is illustrated as a storage media 1350. Inanother embodiment, the computing device further includes a retentionmodule 1314 operable to maintain informational data corresponding to thedetermined correlation. In a further embodiment, the computing deviceincludes an output module 1316 operable to provide access toinformational data corresponding to the determined correlation. Inanother embodiment, the computing device further includes a computingdevice responsive to human input, and operable to display humanperceivable content and communicate with a network. In yet anotherembodiment, the computing device further includes a computing deviceoperable to provide electronic content via a network. In a furtherembodiment, the computing device further includes a network intermediarydevice operable to communicate with a network. In another embodiment,the computing device further includes a computing device under a controlof the third-party.

FIG. 41 illustrates an exemplary computer program product 1400. Thecomputer program product includes a signal bearing medium 1410 bearingprogram instructions 1420 operable to perform an influence evaluationprocess in a computing device. The process of the program instructionsincludes receiving at least one of content site data, computing devicedata, search engine site data, or beneficiary site data. The contentsite data gathered through a process running on a platform of a contentsite, and indicative of communication between the content site and acomputing device responsive to a human user input. The computing devicedata gathered through a process running on a platform of the computingdevice, and indicative of communication between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and at least one of the content site, asearch engine site, and/or a beneficiary site. The search engine sitedata gathered through a process running on a platform of the searchengine site, and indicative of communication between the search enginesite and the computing device responsive to a human user input. Thebeneficiary site data gathered through a process running on a platformof the beneficiary site, and indicative of communication between thecomputing device responsive to a human input and the beneficiary site.The process of the program instructions 1420 also includes assessing aninfluence of the content site on an involvement between the computingdevice responsive to a human user input and the beneficiary site. In analternative embodiment, the process of the program instructions 1420further includes receiving data indicative of an affinity of a humanuser of the computing device 1422. In another embodiment, the process ofthe program instructions further includes outputting the influenceassessment in a form usable by a process facilitating delivery of abenefit to an owner of the content site 1424. In further embodiment, theprocess of the program instructions further includes maintaininginformational data corresponding to the assessment of influence 1426. Inyet another embodiment, the process of the program instructions furtherincludes providing access to maintained informational data correspondingto the assessment of influence 1428.

In another embodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearing medium 1410includes a computer storage medium 1432. In a further embodiment, thecomputer-readable signal-bearing medium includes a communication medium1434.

FIG. 42 illustrates an exemplary device 1500. The device includes means1510 for receiving at least one of content site data, computing devicedata, search engine site data, or beneficiary site data. The contentsite data gathered through a process running on a platform of a contentsite, and indicative of communication between the content site and acomputing device responsive to a human user input. The computing devicedata gathered through a process running on a platform of the computingdevice, and indicative of communication between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and at least one of the content site, asearch engine site, and/or a beneficiary site. The search engine sitedata gathered through a process ruing on a platform of the search enginesite, and indicative of communication between the search engine site andthe computing device responsive to a human user input. The beneficiarysite data gathered through a process running on a platform of thebeneficiary site, and indicative of communication between the computingdevice responsive to a human input and the beneficiary site.

The device 1510 also includes means 1512 for assessing an influence ofthe content site on an involvement between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and the beneficiary site. In analternative embodiment, the device further includes means 1522 forreceiving data indicative of an affinity of a human user of thecomputing device. In another embodiment, the device further includesmeans 1524 for outputting the influence assessment in a form usable by aprocess facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the contentsite.

With reference now to FIG. 43, shown is an example of another systemthat may serve as a context for introducing one or more processes,systems or other articles described herein. As shown system 1800comprises one or more instances of writers 1801, processors 1803,controls 1805, software or other implementations 1807, invokers 1812,compilers 1814, outputs 1816, coding modules 1818, or the like with oneor more media 1890 bearing expressions or outputs thereof In someembodiments, such media may include distributed media bearing a dividedor otherwise distributed implementation or output. For example, in someembodiments, such media may include two or more physically distinctsolid-state memories, two or more transmission media, a combination ofsuch transmission media with one or more data-holding media configuredas a data source or destination, or the like.

In some embodiments, transmission media may be “configured” to bear anoutput or implementation (a) by causing a channel in a medium to conveya portion thereof or (b) by constituting, adapting, addressing, orotherwise linking to such media in some other mode that depends upon oneor more atypical traits of the partial or whole output orimplementation. Data-holding elements of media may likewise be“configured” to bear an output or implementation portion (a) by holdingthe portion in a storage or memory location or (b) by constituting,adapting, addressing, or otherwise linking to such media in some othermode that depends upon one or more at typical traits of the partial orwhole output or implementation. Such atypical traits may include a name,address, portion identifier, functional description, or the likesufficient to distinguish the Output, implementation, or portion from ageneric object.

in some embodiments described herein, “logic” and similarimplementations can include software or other control structuresoperable to guide device operation. Electronic circuitry, for example,can manifest one or more paths of electrical current constructed andarranged to implement various logic functions as described herein. Insome embodiments, one or more media are “configured to bear” adevice-detectable implementation if such media-hold or transmit aspecial-purpose device instruction set operable to perform a novelmethod as described herein. Alternatively or additionally, in somevariants, an implementation may include special-purpose hardware orfirmware components or general-purpose components executing or otherwiseinvoking special-purpose components. Specifications or otherimplementations may be transmitted by one or more instances oftransmission media as described herein, optionally by packettransmission or otherwise by passing through distributed media atvarious times.

In some embodiments, one or more of the coding modules 1818 may beconfigured with circuitry for applying, imposing, or otherwise using asyntactic or other encoding constraint in forming, extracting, orotherwise handling respective portions of the device-detectableimplementation or output. In encoding a software module or other messagecontent, for example, compiler 8114 or coding module 1818 may implementone or more such constraints pursuant to public keys or otherencryption, applying error correction modes, certifying or otherwiseannotating the message content, or implementing other security practicesdescribed herein or known by those skilled in the art. Alternatively oradditionally, another instance of coding module 1818 may be configuredto receive data (via receiver 1059, e.g.) and decode or otherwisedistill the received data using one or more such encoding constraints.Compiler 1814 may, in some variants, convert one or more of components1071-1079 from a corresponding source code form before the component(s)are transmitted across linkage 1005.

System 1800 may be implemented, for example, as one or more instances ofstand-alone workstations, servers, vehicles, portable devices, removablemedia 1820, as components of primary system 1000 or network 1080 (ofFIG. 26), or the like. Alternatively or additionally, media 1890 mayinclude one or more instances of signal repeaters 1081, communicationsatellites 1083, servers 1084, processors 1085, routers 1087, portionsof primary system 1000 as shown, or the like.

Media 1890 may include one or more instances of removable media 1820,tapes or other storage media 1826; parallel (transmission) media 1830;disks 1844; memories 1846; other data-handling media 1850; serial media1860; interfaces 1870; or expressions 1889, 1899. Removable media 1820can bear one or more device-detectable instances of instructionsequences 1822 or other implementations of flow 1100 or flow 500, forexample. Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, removablemedia 1820 can bear alphanumeric data, audio data, image data,structure-descriptive values, or other content 1824 in a context thatindicates an occurrence of flow 1100 or flow 500. In some circumstances,transmission media may bear respective portions of implementations asdescribed herein serially or otherwise non-simultaneously. In somevariants in which two portions 1897, 1898 constitute a partial orcomplete software implementation or product of a novel method describedherein, portion 1897 may follow portion 1898 successively through serialmedia 1863, 1865, 1867 (with transmission of portion 1897 partlyoverlapping in time with transmission of portion 1898 passing throughmedium 1863, for example).

As shown, parallel channels 1831, 1832 are respectively implemented atleast in media 1837, 183g of a bus or otherwise effectively in isolationfrom one another. In some embodiments, a bus may be a system of two ormore signal paths-not unified by a nominally ideal conduction pathbetween them-configured to transfer data between or among internal orexternal computer components. For example, one data channel may includea power line (e.g., as medium 1865) operable for transmitting content ofthe device-detectable implementation as described herein between twotaps or other terminals (e.g., as media 1863, 1867 comprising a sourceand destination).

In another such configuration, one or more media 1837 of channel 1831may bear portion 1897 before, while or after one or more other media1838 of parallel channel 1832 bear portion 1898. In some embodiments,such a process may occur “while” another process occurs if the),coincide or otherwise overlap in time substantially (by several clockcycles, for example). In some embodiments, such a process may occur“after” an event if any instance of the process begins after anyinstance of the event concludes, irrespective of other instancesoverlapping or the like.

In a variant in which a channel through medium 1850 bears an expression1855 partially implementing an operational flows described herein, theremainder of the implementation may be borne (earlier or later, in someinstances) by the same medium 1850 or by one or more other portions ofmedia 1890 as shown. In some embodiments, moreover, one or more controls1805 may configure at least some media 1890 by triggering transmissionsas described above or transmissions of one or more outputs 1816 thereof.

In some embodiments, the one or more “physical media” may include one ormore instances of conduits, layers, networks, static storagecompositions, or other homogenous or polymorphic structures orcompositions suitable for bearing signals. In some embodiments, such a“communication channel” in physical media may include a signal pathbetween two transceivers or the like. A “remainder” of the media mayinclude other signal paths intersecting the communication channel orother media as described herein. In some variants, another exemplarysystem comprises one or more physical media 1890 constructed andarranged to receive a special-purpose sequence 1882 of two or moredevice-detectable instructions 1884 for implementing a flow as describedherein or to receive an output of executing such instructions. Physicalmedia 1890 may (optionally) be configured by writer I 801, transmitter1052, or the like.

In some embodiments, such a “special-purpose” instruction sequence mayinclude any ordered set of two or more instructions directly orindirectly operable for causing multi-purpose hardware or software toperform one or more methods or functions described herein: source code,macro code, controller or other machine code, or the like. In someembodiments, an implementation may include one or more instances ofspecial-purpose sequences 1882 of instructions 1884, patches or otherimplementation updates 1888, configurations 1894, special-purposecircuit designs 1893, or the like. Such “designs,” for example, mayinclude one or more instances of a mask set definition, a connectivitylayout of one or more gates or other logic elements, anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a multivariate transferfunction, or the like.

Segments of such implementations or their outputs may (optionally) bemanifested one or more information-bearing static attributes comprisingthe device-detectable implementation. Such attributes may, in someembodiments, comprise a concentration or other layout attribute ofmagnetic or charge-bearing elements, visible or other optical elements,or other particles in or on a liquid crystal display or othersolid-containing medium. Solid state data storage modules or other suchstatic media may further comprise one or more instances of lasermarkings, barcodes, human-readable identifiers, or the like, such as toindicate one or more attributes of the device-detectable implementation.Alternatively or additionally such solid state or other solid-containingmedia may include one or more instances of semiconductor devices orother circuitry, magnetic or optical digital storage disks, dynamic orflash random access memories (RAMs), or the like. Magnetoresistive RAMsmay bear larger implementation or output portions or aggregations safelyand efficiently, moreover, and without any need for motors or the likefor positioning the storage medium.

Segments of such implementations or their outputs may likewise bemanifested in electromagnetic signals 1886, laser or other opticalsignals 1891, electrical signals 1892, or the like. In some embodiments,for example, such electrical or electromagnetic signals may include oneor more instances of static or variable voltage levels or other analogvalues, radio frequency transmissions or the like. In some embodiments,the above-mentioned “optical” signals may likewise include one or moreinstances of time- or position-dependent, device-detectable variationsin hue intensity, or the like. Alternatively or additionally, portionsof such implementations or their outputs may manifest as one or moreinstances of magnetic, magneto-optic, electrostatic, or other physicalconfigurations 1828 of nonvolatile storage media 1826 or as externalimplementation access services 1872.

In some embodiments, physical media can be configured by being “operatedto bear” or “operated upon to bear” a signal. For example, they mayinclude physical media that generate, transmit, conduct, receive, orotherwise convey or store a device-detectable implementation or outputas described herein. Such conveyance or storing of a device-detectableimplementation or output may be carried out in a distributed fashion atvarious times or locations, or such conveyance or storing of adevice-detectable implementation or output may be done at one locationor time. As discussed above, such physical media “operated to bear” or“operated upon to bear” may include physical media that are atypicallyconstituted or adapted to facilitate methods or functions as describedherein.

In some configurations, one or more output devices 1045 may present oneor more results of computing device data gathered through a processrunning on a platform of the computing device., and indicative ofcommunication between the computing device responsive to a human userinput and at least one of the content site, a search engine site, and/ora beneficiary site in response to inter-face(s) 1040 receiving one ormore invocations or outputs of an implementation of this function vialinkage 1005. Such an “invocation” may, in some embodiments, compriseone or more instances of requests, hardware or software activations,user actions, or other determinants as described herein. Alternativelyof additionally, in some embodiments, one or more input devices 1043 maylater receive one or more invocations or results of search engine sitedata gathered through a process running on a platform of the searchengine site, and indicative of communication between the search enginesite and the computing device responsive to a human user input. Incontexts like these, processor 1085 or other components of network 1080may likewise constitute a secondary implementation having access to aprimary instance of interface 1040 implementing methods like flow 1100as described herein.

Serial media 1860 comprises a communication channel of two or more mediaconfigured to bear a transition or other output increment successively.In some embodiments, for example, serial media 1860 may include acommunication line or wireless medium (e.g., as medium 1865) between twosignal-bearing conduits (e.g., terminals or antennas as media 1863,1867). Alternatively or additionally, one or more lenses 1049 or otherlight-transmissive media may comprise a serial medium between alight-transmissive medium and a sensor or other light receiver 1059 ortransmitter 1052. In some embodiments, such “light-transmissive” mediamay (optionally) comprise metamaterials or other media operable forbearing one or more instances of microwave signals, radiowave signals,visible light signals, or the like.

In some embodiments, such a lens may be an optical element that causeslight to converge or diverge along one or more signal paths. Such alight-transmissive medium may include a signal-bearing conduit, glass,or other physical medium through which an optical signal may travel.More generally, a signal-bearing conduit may be an electrical wire, atelecommunications cable, a fiber-optic cable, or a mechanical couplingor other path for the conveyance of analog or digital signals.

Alternatively or additionally, system 1800 may likewise include one ormore instances of media for handling implementations or their outputs:satellite dishes or other reflectors 1057, antennas 1058 or othertransducers 1875, arrays of two or more such devices configured todetect or redirect one of more incoming signals, caching elements orother data-holding elements (e.g., disks 1844, memories 1846, or othermedia 1890), integrated circuits 1048, or the like. In some variants oneor more media may be “configured” to bear a device-detectableimplementation as described herein by being constituted or otherwisespecially adapted for that type of implementation at one or morerespective times, overlapping or otherwise. Such “signal-bearing” mediamay include those configured to bear one or more such signals at varioustimes as well as those currently bearing them.

In some embodiments, such caching elements may comprise a circuit ordevice configured to store data that duplicates original values storedelsewhere or computed earlier in time. For example, a caching elementmay be a temporary storage area where frequently-accessed data may beheld for rapid access by a computing system. A caching element likewisemay,be machine-readable memory (including computer-readable media suchas random access memory or data disks). In some embodiments, suchcaching elements may likewise comprise a latching circuit or deviceconfigured to store data that has been modified from original valuesassociated with the data (held elsewhere or computed earlier in time,for example).

In one variant, respective portions 1895, 1896 of an expression 1899 ofimplementation 1807 may be sent through respective channels at varioustimes. Invoker 1812 may request or otherwise attempt to activate acomputer program or streaming media overseas via a telephone cable orother channel 1831. Meanwhile, output 18 16 may attempt to trigger asession or other partial implementation 1852, success in which may beindicated by receiving expression 1855 into a visual display or othermedium 1850. Such a program or other implementation may be madecomplete, for example, once both of these attempts succeed.

In some embodiments, transducer(s) 1875 may comprise one or more devicesthat convert a signal from one form to another form. For example, atransducer may be a cathode ray tube that transforms electrical signalsinto visual signals. Another example of a transducer comprises amicroelectromechanical systems (“MEMS”) device, which may be configuredto convert mechanical signals into electrical signals, (or vice versa).

FIG. 44 illustrates a system 1900. The system includes a computingdevice 1902. In an embodiment, the computing device include a user sidecomputing device. In another embodiment, the computing device mayinclude another computing device, such as a content server computingdevice, a search engine site, network-intermediary device, a page taginformation processor, or other computing device. The computing devicecontains an assessment apparatus 1910, a report generator apparatus1970, and a broadcast apparatus 1990. In some embodiments, the broadcastapparatus may be structurally distinct from the assessment apparatusand/or the report generator apparatus. A person 1906 via a userinterface 1904 may use the computing device 1902 to access networkavailable content 1909 via a network 1908.

In an alternative embodiment, the computing device 1902 may include atleast one additional apparatus. The at least one additional apparatusmay include a storage apparatus 1996, and/or a report configurationapparatus 1998. The assessment apparatus 1.910 may include one or moresub-apparatus (not shown). The report generator apparatus 1970 mayinclude one or more sub-apparatus (not shown). The broadcast apparatus1990 may include one or more sub-apparatus (not shown). In anembodiment, one of more of these apparatus may be implemented inhardware, software, and/or firmware.

FIG. 45 illustrates an example operational flow 2000 for reportinginfluence. After a start operation, the operational flow proceeds to anevaluation operation 2010. The evaluation operation assesses abehavioral influence with respect to possible matters of interest toother parties, including a third-party, by network-available content ona person accessing the network-available content. In an embodiment, theaccessing of the network-available content may occur close in time to adownloading of the network-available content. In another embodiment, theaccessing of the network available content may be deferred in time aftera downloading of the network-available content. For example, thenetwork-available content may be received on a first day and accessed bythe person on a second day. A report preparation operation 2070generates a user influence report responsive to the assessed behavioralinfluence. At least one characteristic of the user influence reportdifferentiates between (i) a behavioral influence on the personresulting from the person activating a link included in thenetwork-available content to another network-available content owned bythe third-party, and (ii) another behavioral influence on the person.For example, in an embodiment, the user influence report may indicatethat a behavioral influence resulted in the person clicking on a linkincluded in the network-available content, such as the person clickingon a link to amazon.com included in a book review. In the same exampleembodiment, the user influence report may also indicate that theperson's influenced behavior included looking using a search engine tofind other reviews of the same book, and accessing those reviews atidentified journalistic websites and blogs before clicking on the linkto amazon.com. A broadcast operation 2090 transmits information derivedfrom the user influence report. The operational flow then proceeds to anend operation.

FIG. 45 and several following figures may include various examples ofoperational flows, discussions, and explanations with respect to theabove-described system environment of FIG. 44, and/or with respect toother examples and contexts. However, it should be understood that theoperational flows may be executed in a number of other environment andcontexts, and/or in modified versions of FIG. 44. Also, although thevarious operational flows are illustrated in a sequence(s), it should beunderstood that the various operations may be performed in other ordersthan those which are illustrated, and/or may be performed concurrently.

The evaluation operation 2010 may be performed by the assessmentapparatus 1910 of the computing device 1902 of FIG. 44. The reportingoperation 2070 may be performed by the report generator apparatus 1970.The broadcast operation 2090 may be performed by the broadcast apparatus1990.

FIG. 46 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow2000 described in FIG. 45. The evaluation operation 2010 may include atleast one addition embodiment. The at least one additional embodimentmay include an operation 2012, an operation 2018, and/or an operation2022. The operation 2012 uses a computing device facilitating the personaccessing the network-available content to assess a behavioral influenceby the network-available content on a person accessing thenetwork-available content with respect to possible matters of interestto other parties including a third-party. The computing device mayinclude the thin computing device 20 described in conjunction with FIG.1 and/or the computing device 110 described in conjunction with FIG. 2.The operation 2018 uses a content server that is facilitating the personaccessing the network-available content to assess a behavioral influenceby network-available content on a person accessing the network-availablecontent. The content server may include the server device 201 describedin conjunction with FIG. 3. The operation 2018 may be performed in thecontent-server based report generator. The operation 2022 uses a searchengine site facilitating the person accessing a network-availablecontent to generate a user influence report assessing a behavioralinfluence by the network-available content on the person accessing thenetwork-available content. The search engine site may include the searchengine site 350 described in conjunction with FIG. 4. The operation 2022may be performed in the search engine site based assessment apparatus1910. The operation 2012 may include at least one additional embodiment,such as an operation 2014, and/or an operation 2016. The operation 2014uses a client-side computing device that is facilitating the personaccessing the network-available content to assess a behavioral influenceby the network-available content on a person accessing thenetwork-available content with respect to possible matters of interestto other parties including a third-party. The-operation 2016 uses auser-side computing device to facilitate the person accessing thenetwork-available content to assess a behavioral influence by thenetwork-available content on a person accessing the network-availablecontent with respect to possible matters of interest to other partiesincluding a third-party.

FIG. 47 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow 2000described in FIG. 45. The evaluation operation 2010 may include at leastone addition embodiment. The at least one additional embodiment mayinclude an operation 2024, an operation 2026, an operation 2028, and/oran operation 2032. The operation 2024 uses a network intermediary devicethat is facilitating the person accessing the network-available contentto assess a behavioral influence by network-available content on aperson accessing the network-available content with respect to possiblematters of interest to other parties including a third-party. Theoperation 2026 uses a page tag information processor to assess abehavioral influence by network-available content on a person accessingthe network-available content with respect to possible matters ofinterest to other parties including a third-party. The operation 2028assesses a behavioral influence by network-available content on a personaccessing the network-available content. The assessment of behavioralinfluence is responsive to data acquired by a computing devicefacilitating the person accessing the network available content withrespect to possible matters of interest to other parties including athird-party. The operation 2032 assesses a behavioral influence bynetwork-available content on a person accessing the network-availablecontent with respect to possible matters of interest to other partiesincluding a third-party. The assessment of behavioral influence isresponsive to data acquired by at least two sources. The at least twosources include at least one of a computing device facilitating theperson accessing the network available content, a content serverfacilitating the person accessing the network-available content, asearch engine site facilitating the person accessing thenetwork-available content, and/or a third-party site. For example, theat least two sources may include a computing device facilitating theperson accessing the network available content and the content serverfacilitating the person accessing the network-available content. In aFurther example, the at least two sources may include two contentservers facilitating the person accessing the network-available content.

FIG. 48 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow 2000described in FIG. 45. The evaluation operation 2010 may include at leastone addition embodiment. The at least one additional embodiment mayinclude an operation 2034, an operation 2036, an operation 2038, anoperation 2042, and/or an operation 2044. The operation 2034 (not shown)assesses a behavioral influence by network-available content on a personaccessing the network-available content with respect to possible mattersof interest to other parties including a third-party. The assessment ofbehavioral influence includes computing device data gathered using aprocess included in a platform of a computing device facilitating theperson accessing the network-available content. The computing devicedata is indicative of communication between the computing deviceresponsive to a human user input and at least one of a content site, asearch engine site, and/or a beneficiary site. The operation 2036assesses a behavioral influence with respect to possible matters ofinterest to other parties including a third-party by network-availablecontent on a person accessing the network-available content. Theassessment of behavioral influence is responsive at least in part todata collected using a process received from a search engine site andrunning on a computing device facilitating access the network-availablecontent by the person. The operation 2038 assesses a behaviaoralinfluence with respect to possible matters of interest to other partiesincluding a third-party by network-available content on a personaccessing the network-available content. The network-available contentincludes a first content having a first-content portion and a secondcontent having a second-content portion. For example, the first networkavailable content may include the eContent 1 and the second networkavailable content may include the eContent 2 described in conjunctionwith FIG. 4. The operation 2042 assesses a behavioral influence withrespect to possible matters of interest to other parties including athird-party by network-available content on a person accessing thenetwork-available content. The network-available content includes afirst content having a first-content portion hosted by a first contentserver and a second content having a second-content portion hosted by asecond server. For example, the first network available content manyinclude the eContent 1 described in conjunction with FIG. 4, and thesecond network available content may include another eContent hosted byanother content server that is not shown. The operation 2044 assesses abehavioral influence by static or a dynamic network-available content ona person accessing the network-available content with respect topossible matters of interest to other parties including a third-party.

FIG. 49 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow2000 described in FIG. 45. The evaluation operation 2010 may include atleast one addition embodiment. The at least one additional embodimentmay include an operation 2046, an operation 2048, an operation 2052 anoperation 2054, and/or an operation 2056. The operation 2046 assesses abehavioral influence by the network-available content on a personexposed to the network-available content with respect to possiblematters of interest to other parties, including a third-party. Theoperation 2048 assesses a behavioral influence with respect to possiblematters of interest to other parties including a third-party bynetwork-available content on a person accessing the network-availablecontent. The possible matters of interest include at least one of sales,purchases, enrollment, membership, signing up for email lists, votes,and/or enrollment. The operation 2052 assesses a behavioral influencebid downloaded network content presented to the person with respect topossible matters of interest to other parties including a third-party.The operation 2054 assesses a behavioral influence by a transformednetwork-available content on the person accessing the transformednetwork-available content with respect to possible matters of interestto other parties, including a third-party. The operation 2056 assesses abehavioral influence by pushed or a pulled network-available content ona person accessing the network-available content with respect topossible matters of interest to other parties including a third-party.

FIG. 50 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow 2000described in FIG. 45. The report preparation operation 2070 may includeat least one additional operation. The at least one additional operationmay include an operation 2072, an operation 2074, an operation 2076and/or an operation 2078. The operation 2072 generates a user influencereport responsive to the assessed behavioral influence. A characteristicof the user influence report includes at least one of a single bit, adocument, an XML document, a dynamic report, a two-way report, aone-time snapshot, behavioral log, summary log, behavioral comparison, ahistorical comparison and/or activity history. At the operation 2074,the activating a link included in the network-available content toanother network-available content owned by the third-party furtherincludes activating a hyperlink included in the network-availablecontent to another network-available content owned by the third-party.At the operation 2076, the activating a link included in thenetwork-available content to another network-available content owned bythe third-part), further includes activating an address included in thenetwork-available content that points to another network-availablecontent owned by the third-party. At the operation 2078, the anotherbehavioral influence on the person further includes a behavioralinfluence on the person corresponding to at least one of a behaviorinfluence on the person with respect to the network-available content,with respect to a subsequently accessed network-available content, withrespect to a subsequent search, and/or with respect to the third-party.

FIG. 51 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow 2000described in FIG. 45. The report preparation operation 2070 may includeat least one additional operation. The at least one additional operationmay include an operation 2082, an operation 2084, and/or an operation2086. At the operation 2082, the another behavioral influence on theperson further includes a behavioral influence on the personcorresponding to at least one of a behavior influence on the personbuying, joining, downloading, uploading, and/or voting with respect to amatter of interest to the third-party. At the operation 2084, theanother behavioral influence on the person further includes a behavioralinfluence on the person corresponding to at least one of the person'sinputs, keystrokes, navigation commands, mouse movements, caching,sessions, and/or visits. At the operation 2086, the another behavioralinfluence on the person further includes a behavioral influence on theperson corresponding to at least one of the person's activity associatedwith, incidental to, and/or responsive to mouse movements, scrollingmovements, purchases, operations, visited Websites, visited blogs, pageviews, page visits, viewing time, repeat visits, page tags, printing acontent, click stream, search strings, local search strings,interactions, scrolling, menu activity, corresponding/related tobrowsing the Internet, cut and paste, print history, browsing history,email, and/or cookies received.

FIG. 52 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow2000 described in FIG. 45. The broadcast operation 2090 may include atleast one additional operation. The at least one additional operationmay include an operation 2092, and/or an operation 2094. The operation2092 transmits information derived from the user influence report in amanner receivable by a site operable to facilitate delivery to an ownerof the network-available content on behalf of the third-party. Theoperation 2094 transmits the user influence report.

The operational flow 2000 may include at least one additional operation2095. The at least one additional operation may include an operation2096, and/or an operation 2098. The operation 2096 saves the userinfluence report. The operation 2098 configures the user influencereport to be useful to an entity distributing a benefit to an owner of anetwork-available content on behalf of the third-party.

FIG. 53 illustrates an operational flow 2100 of reporting influence on aperson. After a start operation, the operational flow includes anevaluation operation 2110. The evaluation operation assesses abehavioral influence with respect to possible matters of interest toother parties by network-available content on a person accessing thenetwork-available content. An analysis operation 2120 generates a userinfluence report responsive to the assessed behavioral influence. Acharacteristic of the user influence report includes reporting theassessed behavior influence without reporting any behavioral influenceindicated by the person activating a link to a network-available contentowned by a third-party/beneficiary. A retention operation 2130 savesdata indicative of the user influence report. The operational flow thenmoves to an end operation.

FIG. 54 illustrates an operational flow 2150 for reporting an influenceof electronic content. After a start operation, the operational flowmoves to an evaluation operation 2160. The evaluation operation assessesa behavioral influence with respect to possible matters of interest to athird-party by the electronic content on a person accessing theelectronic content. A characteristic of the assessment of a behavioralinfluence includes assessing the behavior influence independent of anybehavior influence evidenced by the person activating a link to anelectronic content owned by the third-party and included in theelectronic content. A data reception operation 2170 receives dataindicative of a matter of interest to the third party. For example, thethird-party/beneficiary of FIG. 4 may be interesting in knowing whetherthere exists electronic content accessible over the Internet directed toa product they sell, and whether that electronic content is steeringpeople toward the product and/or their Web site, illustrated asthird-party/beneficiary site 330. Continuing with this example, the datareception operation may in this example receive data indicating that themanufacturer is interested in electronic content related to theirproduct. In an instance, a new car manufacturer may be introducing a newmodel car, and want to receive an assessment of behavioral influence onthe person using the client/user machine 310 of FIG. 4 with respect totheir new car. The data reception operation would receive dataindicating that manufacturer X is interested in electronic contentpertaining to their new model car Y. A dissemination operation 2180transmits information derived from the assessment of behavioralinfluence. In an alternative embodiment, the dissemination operation mayinclude at least one additional operation, illustrated as an operation2182. The operation 2182 transmits information derived from theassessment of behavioral influence via a network. The user influencereport is receivable by a site operable to facilitate delivery of abenefit on behalf of the third-party to an owner of the electroniccontent. The operational flow then proceeds to an end operation. Also,although the various operational flows are illustrated in a sequence(s),it should be understood that the various operations may be performed inother orders than those which are illustrated, or may be performedconcurrently.

FIG. 55 illustrates a system 2200. The system includes a computingdevice 2201 couplable with a computer network. The system includes anevaluation circuit 2210, an analysis circuit 2122, and a broadcastcircuit 2214. The system may include a storage circuit 2216. Thesecircuits may be structurally incorporated with the computing device.Alternatively, one or more of these circuits may be structurallydistinct from the computing device. In such embodiment, the one or moreof these circuits may be implemented, for example, in an external device(not shown).

The evaluation circuit 2210 is operable to assess a behavioral influencewith respect to possible matters of interest to other parties, includinga third-party, by network-available content on a-person accessing thenetwork-available content. The analysis circuit 2122 is operable togenerate a user influence report responsive to the assessed behavioralinfluence. A characteristic of the user influence report includesdifferentiating between (i) a behavioral influence on the personassociated with the person activating a link to anothernetwork-available content owned by the third-party that is included inthe network-available content, and (ii) another behavioral influence onthe person. The broadcast circuit 2214 is operable to transmitinformation derived from the user influence report via the computernetwork. The storage circuit 2216 is operable to save the user influencereport. For example, the user influence report may be saved in a storagemedia 2250 of the computing device.

FIG. 56 illustrates an example computer program product 2300. Thecomputer program product includes a computer-readable signal-bearingmedium 2310 bearing program instructions 2325. The program instructionsare operable to perform a process in a computing device. The processincludes assess a behavioral influence with respect to possible mattersof interest to other parties including a third-party bynetwork-available content on a person accessing the network-availablecontent. The process also includes generate a user influence reportresponsible to the assessed behavioral influence. A characteristic ofthe user influence report includes differentiating between (i) abehavioral influence on the person resulting from the person activatinga link( to another network-available content owned by the third-partythat is included in the network-available content, and (ii) anotherbehavioral influence on the person. The process further includes provideinformation derived from the user influence report. The process alsoincludes save data indicative of the user influence report.

In an alternative embodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearingmedium 2310 includes a computer storage medium 2312. In anotherembodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearing medium includes acommunication medium 2314.

FIG. 57 illustrates an example apparatus 2320. The apparatus includesmeans 2330 for assessing a behavioral influence with respect to possiblematters of interest to other parties including a third-party bynetwork-available content on a person accessing the network-availablecontent. The apparatus also includes means 2335 for generating a userinfluence report responsive to the assessed behavioral influence. Acharacteristic of the user influence report includes differentiatingbetween (i) a behavioral influence on the person resulting from theperson activating a link included in the network-available content toanother network-available content owned by the third-party that isincluded in the network-available content, and (ii) another behavioralinfluence on the person. The apparatus further includes means 2340 fortransmitting information derived from the user influence report via anetwork. In an alternative embodiment, the apparatus ma) include means2345 for saving the user influence report.

FIG. 58 illustrates an example system 2400. The system includes acomputing device 2402. In an embodiment, the computing device includes auser-side computing device. In another embodiment, the computing devicemay include another computing device, such as a content server computingdevice, a search engine site, network-intermediary device, a page taginformation processor, or other computing device. The computing devicecontains a monitoring apparatus 2410, an evaluation apparatus 2430, anda broadcast apparatus 2460. In some embodiments, the broadcast apparatusmay be structurally distinct from the assessment apparatus and/or thereport generator apparatus. A person 2406 via a user interface 2404 mayuse the user-computing device 2402 to access electronic content 2409 viaa network 2408.

In an alternative embodiment, the user-computing device 2402 may includeat least one additional apparatus. The at least one additional apparatusmay include a storage apparatus 2496. The monitoring apparatus 2410 mayinclude one or more sub-apparatus (not shown). The evaluation apparatus2430 may include one or more sub-apparatus (not shown). The broadcastapparatus 2460 may include one or more sub-apparatus (not shown). In anembodiment, one of more of these apparatus may be implemented inhardware, software, and/or firmware.

FIG. 59 and several following figures may include various examples ofoperational flows, discussions, and explanations with respect to theabove-described system environment of FIG. 58, and/or with respect toother examples and contexts. However, it should be understood that theoperational flows may be executed in a number of other environment andcontexts, and/or in modified versions of FIG. 58. Also, although thevarious operational flows are illustrated in a sequence(s), it should beunderstood that the various operations may be performed in other ordersthan those which are illustrated, and/or may be performed concurrently.

FIG. 59 illustrates an example operational flow 2500 for reporting apossible influential electronic content. After a start operation, theoperational flow moves to a monitoring operation 2510. The monitoringoperation collects data indicative of a person accessing electroniccontent over a computer network using a user computing device. The datais collected using a process included in a platform of the usercomputing device. A deriving operation 2530 transforming the collecteddata into information indicative of events (i) associatable with theperson having accessed the electronic content and (ii) of possibleinterest to other parties including a third-party. An aspect of theinformation indicative of events differentiates between (iii)information indicative of an event associated with the person activatinga link in the electronic content that points to other electronic contentowned by the third-party and (iv) information indicative of anotherevent. A broadcast operation 2550 transmits at least a portion of theinformation indicative of events via a network. The operational flowthen moves to an end operation.

In an embodiment, the operational flow 2500 may be implemented in thesystem environment illustrated in conjunction with FIG. 58. Themonitoring operation 2510 may be performed by the monitoring apparatus2410 of the computing device 2702 of FIG. 58. The deriving operation2530 may be performed by the evaluation apparatus 2430. The broadcastoperation 2550 may be performed by the broadcast apparatus 2460.

FIG. 60 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow2500 of FIG. 59. The monitoring operation 2510 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 2512, an operation 2514, an operation 2516, and/or anoperation 2518. The operation 2512 collects data indicative of a personaccessing electronic content over a computer network using a usercomputing device. The data is collected using a process incorporatedinto a platform of the user computing device. The operation 2514collects data indicative of a person accessing electronic content over acomputer network using a user computing device. The data is collectedusing at least one of a kernel mode, user mode, application, and/orprogram process included in a platform of the user computing device. Theoperation 2516 collects data indicative of a person accessing electroniccontent over a computer network using a user computing device. The datais collected using a process that is at least one of bundled with,integrated into, registered with and/or added on to a platform of theuser computing device. The operation 2518 collects data indicative of aperson accessing electronic content over a computer network using a usercomputing device, the data collected using a process included in aplatform of the user computing device. The platform including at leastone of a Windows based platform of the Windows family, a Unix basedplatform of the Unix family, or a Mac OS based platform of the Mac OSfamily. The platform may include a Windows based platform of the Windowsfamily, a Unix based platform of the Unix family, or a Mac OS basedplatform of the Mac OS family. For example, a Windows family may includeone or more of a Windows OS for a desktop, such as Vista, a Windows OSfor a mobile device, such as Mobile 5, and/or a Microsoft Windows OS fora gaminig device, such as Xbox 360 OS. In an another example, a Mac OSfamily may include one or more of Mac OS for a desktop or a MacBook,such as Mac OS X, an OS for a mobile music device, such as Mac OS Xversion for an iPod, and/or a Mac OS for mobile device, such as Mac OS Xversion for iPhone. A platform may span at least two machines. In anembodiment, the platform of the user computing device may include acommon OS across at least two user computing devices. The at least twouser computing devices may or may not be able to talk with each other.For example, the data may be collected across at least two deviceshaving a Mac OS based platform, such as MacBook, iMac desktop, aniPhone, and/or an iPod.

FIG. 61 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow 2500 ofFIG. 59. The deriving operation 2530 may include at least one additionaloperation. The at least one additional operation may include anoperation 2532 and/or an operation 2534. At the operation 2532, thetransforming the collected data into information indicative of eventsfurther includes transforming the collected data into informationindicative of events using the process included in a platform of theuser computing device. At the operation 2534, the transforming thecollected data into information indicative of events further includestransforming the collected data into information indicative of eventsusing the process included in a platform of the user computing device.The transformed data being at least substantially advantageously usableby another device using a platform of the same platform family as theplatform of the user computing device.

FIG. 62 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow 2500 ofFIG. 55. The broadcast operation 2550 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 2552, an operation 2554, an operation 2556, and/or anoperation 2558. The operation 2552 transmits at least a portion of theinformation indicative of events via a network in a format usable byanother device that is operable to facilitate delivery of a benefit toan owner of the electronic content. The operation 2554 transmitting atleast a portion of the information indicative of events via a network ina format usable by another device running on a platform of the sameplatform family as the platform of the user computing device. Theoperation 2556 transmits at least a portion of the informationindicative of events via a network. The interpretability of the at leasta portion of the information indicative of events being at leastsubstantially advantageously runable on another device using a platformof the same platform family as the platform of the user computingdevice. The operation 2558 transmits the information indicative ofevents via a network.

FIG. 63 illustrates an operational flow 2600 for reporting influence ona person. After a start operation, the operational flow moves to amonitoring operation 2610. The monitoring operation collects dataindicative of the person accessing electronic content over a computernetwork using the user computing device. A deriving operation 2630generates a user influence report by transforming the collected datainto information indicative of events associatable with the personaccessing the electronic content over a computer network using the usercomputing device. A broadcasting operation 2650 transmits dataindicative of the user influence report via a network. The userinfluence report is receivable by a site coupled to the network andoperable to facilitate delivery of a benefit to an owner of theelectronic content. The operational flow then moves to an end operation.

FIG. 64 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow2600 of FIG. 63. The monitoring operation 2610 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 2612, an operation 2614, an operation 2616, and/or anoperation 2617. The operation 2612 collects at least one of raw data,aggregated data, and/or anonymized data indicative of the personaccessing electronic content over a computer network using the usercomputing device. The operation 2614 collects data associated with,incidental to, and/or responsive to the person accessing electroniccontent over a computer network using the user computing device. Theoperation 2616 collects data indicative of at least one of user inputs,keystrokes, navigation commands, document navigation, screen navigationcommands, mouse movements, cut and/or paste, scrolling, cut and paste,print history, caching, sessions, menu activity, visibility tag state,event timeline, logging application usage, documents opened, and/or userinitiated computing device interaction. For example, the collect dataindicative of keystrokes may include logging all keystrokes along withan indication of the window in which they are typed. By way of furtherexample, the log application usage may include logging events performed,and may additionally include organizing a listing of the logged events.Additionally, log application usage may include monitoring and loggingall applications run. Further, collect data indicative of documentsopened may include logging documents and/or files opened and/or viewed.The operation 2617 (not shown) collects data indicative of at least oneof a user physiological state, tracked user gaze, user dwell time, userpupil dilation, user respiration, and/or user pulse rate.

FIG. 65 illustrates another embodiment of the operational flow 2600 ofFIG. 63. The monitoring operation 2610 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 2611, an operation 2619, an operation 2622, and/or anoperation 2624. The operation 2618 collects data indicative of at leastone of user activity, Website activity email activity, setting abookmark, purchases, operations, Websites visited, blogs visited, pageviews, page visits, viewing time, repeat visits, page tags, printing,click stream, search strings, local search strings, interactions,browsing history, email sent and/or received, and/or cookies received.For example, the collect data indicative of Website activity ma)yinclude logging websites visited by at least one browser. The operation2619 (not shown) collects data indicative of at least one of Windownavigation, tab navigation; window state, tap state, preference changes,and/or state changes. The operation 2622 collects data indicative of theperson at least one of browsing, page viewing, downloading, listening,reading, sending email, receiving email, encountering the electroniccontent, forwarding the electronic content, and/or navigating theelectronic content. The operation 2624 collects data indicative of theperson accessing the electronic content over a computer network usingthe user computing device, wherein the electronic content includes afirst electronic content having a first-content portion and a secondelectronic content having a second-content portion. In a furtherembodiment, the electronic content includes a first electronic contenthaving a first-content portion potentially relevant to a third-party anda second electronic content having a second-content portion potentiallyrelevant to the third-party.

FIG. 66 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow 2600 ofFIG. 63. The deriving operation 2630 may include at least one additionalembodiment. The at least one additional embodiment may include anoperation 2632, an operation 2634, and/or an operation 2636. Theoperation 2632 generates a user influence report by transforming thecollected data into information by at least one of mining, filtering,recursive model, interpreting, refining, combining, evaluating oneinstance of the collected data in view of another instance of thecollected data, converting key strokes into URL's, and/or convertingURL's into websites. The operation 2634 generates a user influencereport by transforming the collected data into information indicative ofat least one of action, behavior, affiliation, and/or outcomeassociatable with the person accessing the electronic content over acomputer network using the user computing device. The operation 2636generates a user influence report by transforming the collected datainto information indicative of at least one of action, behavior,affiliation, relevancy to a third-party, and/or outcome associatablewith the person accessing the electronic content over a computer networkusing the user computing device.

FIG. 67 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow2600 of FIG. 63. The deriving operation 2630 may include at least oneadditional embodiment. The at least one additional embodiment mayinclude an operation 2638, an operation, 2640, and/or an operation 2642.The operation 2638 generates a user influence report by transforming thecollected data into information indicative of at least one of aninvolvement between the person and a subject of interest to athird-party associatable with the person accessing the electroniccontent over a computer network using the user computing device. Forexample, an involvement may include at least one of a purchase, adonation, a membership, and/or an inquiry. The operation 2640 generatesa user influence report by transforming the collected data intoinformation indicative of events (i) associatable with the personaccessing the electronic content over a computer network using the usercomputing device and (ii) of possible interest to other partiesincluding a third-party. The operation 2642 generates a user influencereport by transforming the collected data into information indicative ofevents associatable with the person accessing the electronic contentover a computer network using the user computing device and having atleast significantly reduced presence of information useable inpositively identifying the person.

FIG. 68 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 2600 of FIG. 59. The broadcast operation 2650 may include at leastone additional embodiment, such as an operation 2652. The operation 2652transmits data indicative of the user influence report via a network,the user influence report being receivable by a site operable todetermine a correlation between (i) events associatable with the personusing a user computing device to access electronic content: and (ii) aninvolvement between the person and a subject of interest to athird-party.

FIG. 69 illustrates an example system 2700 in which embodiments may beimplemented. The system includes a computing device 2705 couplable witha computer network. The system also includes a monitor circuit 2710, anevaluation circuit 2715, and a broadcast circuit 2720. An alternativeembodiment may include a storage circuit 2725. These circuits may bestructurally incorporated with the computing device. Alternatively, oneor more of these circuits ma)y be structurally distinct from thecomputing device. In such embodiment, the one or more of these circuitsmay be implemented, for example, in an external device (not shown).

The monitor circuit 2710 is operable to collect data indicative of aperson accessing electronic content over a computer network using a usercomputing device. The data is collected using a process included in aplatform of the user computing device. The evaluation circuit 2715 isoperable to transform the collected data into information indicative ofevents (i) associatable with the person having accessed the electroniccontent and (ii) of possible interest to other parties including athird-party. An aspect of the information indicative of eventsdifferentiates between (iii) information indicative of an eventassociated with the person activating a link in the electronic contentthat points to other electronic content owned by the third-party and(iv) information indicative of another event. The broadcast circuit 2720is operable to communicate data indicative of the information indicativeof events to a recipient via the computer network. The storage circuit2725 is operable to save the information indicative of events.

In an alternative embodiment, the broadcast circuit 2720 includes abroadcast circuit 2799 operable to communicate data indicative of theinformation indicative of events to a recipient via the computernetwork. The data indicative of the information indicative of events isreceivable by a site operable to facilitate delivery of a benefit to anowner of at least one instance of the electronic content.

FIG. 70 illustrates an example computer program product 2800. Thecomputer program product includes a computer-readable signal-bearingmedium 2810 bearing program instructions 2820. The program instructionsare operable to perform a process in a computing device. The processincludes collect data using the computing device indicative of a personaccessing electronic content over a computer network using the computingdevice. The process also includes generate a user influence report usingthe computing device by transforming the collected data into informationindicative of events associatable with the person accessing theelectronic content over the computer network using the computing device.The process further includes transmit data indicative of the userinfluence report to a recipient via the computer network. The processincludes save data indicative of the user influence report.

In an alternative embodiment, the program instructions 2820 furtherinclude program instructions 2822 incorporated into a platform of thecomputing device and operable to perform a process in the computingdevice. In another embodiment, the program instructions further includeprogram instructions 2824 received from a search engine provider andoperable to perform a process in the computing device. In a furtherembodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearing medium includes acomputer storage medium 2832. In another embodiment, thecomputer-readable signal-bearing medium includes a communication medium2834.

FIG. 71 illustrates an influence reporting apparatus 2900. The apparatusincludes means 2910 for collecting data indicative of a person accessingelectronic content over a computer network using the user computingdevice. The apparatus also includes means 2915 for generating a userinfluence report by transforming the collected data into informationindicative of events associatable with the person accessing theelectronic content over a computer network using the user computingdevice. The apparatus also includes means 2920 for transmitting dataindicative of the user influence report via a network. In an alternativeembodiment, the apparatus includes means 2920 for saving the userinfluence report.

FIG. 72 illustrates an example operational flow 3000 for assessing aninfluence of an electronic content on a person. After a start operation,the operational flow moves to a monitoring operation 3010. Themonitoring operation collects data indicative of a computing environmentof a computing device facilitating a person accessing electronic contentvia a computer network using the computing device. The electroniccontent including a first electronic content having a first contentportion and a second electronic content having a second content portion.

In an embodiment, the computing environment includes a particularconfiguration of hardware and/or software of the computing device. Forexample, the computing environment may include a state of the hardwareand/or software of the computing device, or a series of states of thehardware and/or software. A state of a software of the computing devicemay include a URL of a Website electronic content displayed by a browserof the computing device, key words in the Website content, navigationcommands implemented with respect to the Website, a Website owner,elapsed time in the state, and/or identification of a prior and/orsubsequent Website content displayed. In another embodiment, thecomputing environment refers to a hardware platform and an operatingsystem running in the computing device. In a further embodiment, acomputing environment is used to express a type of configuration, suchas a networking environment, database environment transaction processingenvironment, batch environment, interactive environment, and so on.

The operational flow 3000 includes an evaluation operation 3020transforming the collected data into an assessment of an influence ofthe first electronic content and the second electronic content relevantto an involvement between the person using the computing device and to asubject of interest to a third-party. The operational flow also includesa broadcast operation 3030 transmitting a user influence reportindicating the influence assessment of the electronic content on abehavior of the person. The operational flow then moves to an endoperation.

FIG. 73 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow3000 of FIG. 68. The monitoring operation 3010 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 3012, and/or an operation 3014. The operation 3012 collectsdata indicative of at least one of a hardware-environment, a softwareenvironment, and/or a state of a computing device facilitating a personaccessing electronic content via a computer network using the computingdevice. The operation 3014 collects using a process included in aplatform of a computing device data indicative of a computingenvironment of the computing device, the computing device facilitating aperson accessing electronic content via a computer network using thecomputing device. The evaluation operation 3020 may include at least oneadditional operation, such as an operation 3022. The operation 3022assesses using a process included in a search platform of the computingdevice an influence of the first electronic content and the secondelectronic content on an involvement between the person using thecomputing device and a subject of interest to the third-party.

FIG. 74 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 3000 of FIG. 68. The evaluation operation 3020 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 3022, and/or an operation 3024. The operation 3022transforms, using a process included in a search platform of thecomputing device, the collected data into an assessment of an influenceof the first electronic content and the second electronic content thatis relevant to both an involvement between the person using thecomputing device and to a subject of interest to the third-party. Theoperation 3024 transforms the collected data into an assessment of aninfluence of the first electronic content and the second electroniccontent that is relevant to both an involvement between the person usingthe computing device and to a subject of interest to the third-party. Anaspect of the influence assessment includes distinguishing between (i)an influence associated with the person activating a link in the firstelectronic content and/or the second electronic content that points toanother electronic content owned by the third-party and (ii) aninfluence associated with another aspect of the person accessingelectronic content.

FIG. 75 illustrates an example system 3200. The system includes acomputing device 3202. In an embodiment, the computing device include auser side computing device. In another embodiment, the computing devicemay include another computing device, such as a content server computingdevice, a search engine site, network-intermediary device, a page taginformation processor, or other computing device. The computing devicecontains a monitoring apparatus 3210, an involvement determiningapparatus 3230, a Web page determining apparatus 3940, a correlationapparatus 3250, and a broadcast apparatus 3270. In some embodiments, thebroadcast apparatus may be structurally distinct from the monitoringapparatus and/or the correlation apparatus. A person 3206 via a userinterface 3204 may use the computing device 3202 to access Web pages3209 via a network 3208.

In an alternative embodiment, the computing device 3202 may include atleast one additional apparatus. The at least one additional apparatusmay include a privacy apparatus 3280, and/or a report configurationapparatus 3298. The monitoring apparatus 3210 may include one or moresub-apparatus (not shown). The involvement determining apparatus 3230may include one or more sub-apparatus (not shown). The Web pagedetermining apparatus 3240 may include one or more sub-apparatus (notshown). The correlation apparatus 3250 may include one or moresub-apparatus (not shown). The broadcast apparatus 3270 may include oneor more sub-apparatus (not shown). In an embodiment, one of more ofthese apparatus may be implemented in hardware, software, and/orfirmware.

FIG. 76 illustrates an example operational flow 3300 for influencereporting. After a start operation, the operation moves to anaccumulation operation 3310. The accumulation operation collects dataindicative of a computing device environment of a user-side computingdevice facilitating a person accessing Web pages and facilitating theperson communicating with a third-party via a computer network. In anembodiment, a Web page includes a document connected to the World WideWeb and viewable by person connected to the Internet who has a webbrowser. A first processing operation 3330 transforms the collected datato indicate an involvement between the third-party and the person. Asecond processing operation 3340 transforms the collected data toindicate the Web pages accessed by the person. An evaluation operation3350 correlates the indicated involvement between the third-party andthe person with the indicated Web pages accessed by the person. Abroadcast operation 3370 outputs from the user-side computing devicedata indicative of the correlation. In an alternative embodiment, thebroadcast operation may push from the user-side computing device dataindicative of the correlation. In another embodiment, the broadcastoperation may respond to a pull by outputting from the user-sidecomputing device data indicative of the correlation. In a furtherembodiment, the broadcast operation reports the correlation to anetworked recipient.

FIG. 76 and several following figures may include various examples ofoperational flows discussions, and explanations with respect to theabove-described system environment of FIG. 75, and/or with respect toother examples and contexts. However, it should be understood that theoperational flows may be executed in a number of other environment andcontexts, and/or in modified versions of FIG. 75. Also, although thevarious operational flows are illustrated in a sequence(s), it should beunderstood that the various operations may be performed in other ordersthat those which are illustrated, and/or may be performed concurrently.

In an embodiment, the accumulation operation 2010 may be performed bythe monitoring apparatus 3210 of the computing device 3202 of FIG. 44.The first processing operation 3330 may be performed by the involvementdetermining apparatus 3230. The second processing operation 3340 ma) beperformed b) the Web page determination apparatus 3240. The broadcastoperation 3370 may be performed by the broadcast apparatus 3270.

FIG. 77 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow3300 of FIG. 76. The accumulation operation 3310 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 3312, an operation 3314, an operation 3316, and/oran operation 3318. The operation 3312 collects data indicative of atleast one of a hardware environment, a software environment, and/or astate of a computing device environment of a user-side computing devicefacilitating a person accessing Web pages and facilitating the personcommunicating with a third-party via a computer network. The operation3314 collects data indicative of a computing device environment of auser-side computing device facilitating a person accessing Web pages andfacilitating the person communicating with a third-party via a computernetwork. The data is collected using a process included in a platform ofthe user-side computing device. The operation 3316 collects dataindicative of a computing device environment of a user-side computingdevice facilitating a person accessing Web pages and facilitating theperson communicating with a third-party via a computer network. The datais collected using a process running on a platform of the user-sidecomputing device and associated with a search engine site. For example,a search engine site, such as Google, Yahoo, or Live Search, may providean application runnable on a platform of the user-side computing devicethat performs the operational flow 3300 and transmits the dataindicative of the correlation to the search engine site at the operation3370, or to another designated site. The operation 3318 collects dataindicative of a computing device environment of a user-side computingdevice facilitating a person accessing Web pages and facilitating theperson communicating with a third-party via a computer network. The Webpages include a first electronic content and a second electroniccontent.

FIG. 78 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 3300 of FIG. 76. The first processing operation 3330 may include atleast one additional operation. The at least one additional operationmay include an operation 3332, an operation 3333, an operation 3333,and/or an operation 3336. The operation 3332 transforms the collecteddata for information corresponding to an involvement between thethird-party and the person. The operation 3333 transforms the collecteddata to indicate at least one of a possible involvement, a confirmedinvolvement, or inferred involvement between the third-party and theperson. The operation 3334 transforming the collected data to indicateat least one of a purchase, a pledge, a membership, an activity, aninteraction, a vote, a contribution, and/or a relationship between thethird-party and the person. The operation 3336 at least one of massages,aggregates, and/or annotates the collected data to indicate aninvolvement between the third-party and the person.

FIG. 79 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 3300 of FIG. 76. The second processing operation 3340 may includeat least one additional operation, such as the operation 3342. Theoperation 3342 transforms the collected data for informationcorresponding to the Web pages accessed by the person.

FIG. 80 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow3300 of FIG. 76. The evaluation operation 3350 may include at least oneadditional operation. The at least one additional operation may includean operation 3352, and/or an operation 3354. The operation 3352 at leastone of approximates, estimates, and/or determines a correlation of theindicated involvement between the third-party and the person with theindicated Web pages accessed by the person. The operation 3354correlating the indicated involvement between the third-party and theperson with the Web pages accessed by the person. A characteristic ofthe correlating includes a differentiating between (i) an involvementbetween the third-party and the person resulting from the personactivating a link to another Web page owned by the third-party that isincluded in at least one of the Web pages, and (ii) another involvementbetween the third-party and the person.

FIG. 81 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 3300 of FIG. 71. The broadcast operation 3370 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 3372, and/or an operation 3374. The operation 3372outputs from the user-side computing device data indicative of thecorrelation. The data indicative of the correlation is receivable by asite operable to facilitate delivery of a benefit to an owner of atleast one Web page of the Web pages. The operation 3374 outputs dataindicative of the correlation via the computer network from theuser-side computing device.

FIG. 82 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 3300 of FIG. 7.1. The operational flow may include at least oneadditional operation, such as a confidentiality operation 3380. Theconfidentiality operation anonymizes the data indicative of thecorrelation in response to a privacy policy. In an embodiment, theconfidentiality operation may be performed by the privacy apparatus3280.

FIG. 83 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow3300 of FIG. 71. The confidentiality operation 3380 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 3382, and/or an operation 3384. The operation 33S82anonymizes the data indicative of the correlation in response to aprivacy policy by at least significantly reducing a presence of datauseable in identifying the person. In an embodiment, the reducing apresence of data useable in identifying the person includes reducing apresence of an attribute of the person, such as for example by reducinga presence of passwords, credit card data, and/or personal information.The operation 3384 anonymizes the data indicative of the correlation inresponse to a selected privacy policy. The privacy policy selection isindicated by at least one of the person, a process present in theuser-side computing device, an owner of a platform of the user-sidecomputing device, the third-party, another party, and/or an informationbroker.

FIG. 84 illustrates an example system 3400. The system includes acomputing device 3405 couplable with a computer network. The system alsoincludes a monitor circuit 3410, a conversion circuit 3415, anevaluation circuit 3420, and a broadcast circuit 3425. In an alternativeembodiment, the system includes a privacy circuit 3430, and/or a storagecircuit 3435. These circuits may be structurally incorporated with thecomputing device. Alternatively, one or more of these circuits may bestructurally distinct from the computing device. In such embodiment, theone or more of these circuits may be implemented, for example, in anexternal device (not shown).

The monitor circuit 3410 is operable to collect data indicative of acomputing device environment of a user-side computing devicefacilitating a person accessing Web pages and facilitating the personcommunicating with a third-party via a computer network. In anotherembodiment, the user-side computing device may include the system 3400.The conversion circuit 3415 is operable to (i) transform the collecteddata to indicate an involvement between the third-party and the person,and to (ii) transform the collected data to indicate the Web pagesaccessed by the person. The evaluation circuit 3420 is operable todiscern a relationship between (i) the indicated involvement between thethird-party and the person and (ii) the indicated Web pages accessed bythe person in an alternative embodiment, the evaluation circuit includesan evaluation circuit 3422 operable to discern a correlation between (i)the indicated involvement between the third-party and the person and(ii) the indicated Web pages accessed by the person. In anotheralternative embodiment, the evaluation circuit includes an evaluationcircuit (not shown) operable to provide a probability of a relationshipbetween (i) the indicated involvement between the third-party and theperson and (ii) the indicated Web pages accessed by the person. Thebroadcast circuit 3425 is operable to output via the computer networkdata indicative of the discerned relationship. The privacy circuit 3430is operable to anonymize the data indicative of the discernedrelationship in response to a privacy policy. The storage circuit 3435is operable to save data indicative of the discerned relationship.

FIG. 85 illustrates an example computer program product 3500. Thecomputer program product includes a computer-readable signal-bearingmedium 3510 bearing program instructions 3520. The program instructionsinclude program instructions operable to perform a process in auser-side computing device. The process includes collect data indicativeof a computing device environment of the user-side computing devicefacilitating a person accessing Web pages and facilitating the personcommunicating with a third-party via a computer network. The processalso includes transform the collected data to indicate an involvementbetween the third-party and the person. The process additionallyincludes transform the collected data to indicate the Web pages accessedby the person. The process further includes examine the transformedcollected data for a relationship between (i) the indicated involvementbetween the third-party and the person; and (ii) the Web pages accessedby the person. The process further includes output data corresponding tothe examined relationship between the indicated involvement and the Webpages accessed by the person.

In an alternative embodiment, the program instructions 3520 furtherinclude program instructions 3522 incorporated into a platform of theuser-side computing device and operable to perform a process in thecomputing device. In another embodiment, the program instructionsfurther include program instructions 3524 operable to collaborate with asearch engine and operable to perform a process in the user-sidecomputing device. In a further embodiment, the program instructionsoperable to perform a process in a computing device further includeanonymize 3526 in response to a confidentiality policy the relationshipbetween the indicated involvement and the Web pages accessed by theperson. In an alternative embodiment, the computer-readablesignal-bearing medium includes a computer storage medium 3532. In afurther embodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearing medium includesa communication medium 3534.

FIG. 86 illustrates an example of an apparatus. The apparatus includesmeans 3610 for collecting data indicative of a computing deviceenvironment of a user-side computing device facilitating a personaccessing Web pages and communicating with a third-party via a computernetwork. The apparatus also includes means 3620 for transforming thecollected data to indicate an involvement between the third-party andthe person. The apparatus further includes means 3622 for transformingthe collected data to indicate the Web pages accessed by the person. Theapparatus includes means 3630 for correlating the indicated involvementand the accessed Web pages. The apparatus also includes means 3640 fortransmitting via the computer network data indicative of thecorrelation.

FIG. 87 illustrates an example of a system 4000. The system includes acomputing device 4002. In an embodiment, the computing device includes auser-side computing device. The user-side computing device may includethe thin computing device 20 described in conjunction with FIG. 1 and/orthe computing device 110 described in conjunction with FIG. 2. Inanother embodiment, the computing device may include another computingdevice, such as a content-server computing device, a search engine site,network-intermediary device, a page tag information processor, or othercomputing device. The content server may include the server device 201described in conjunction with FIG. 3. The search engine site may includethe search engine site 350 described in conjunction with FIG. 4. Thecomputing device includes an activity monitoring circuit 4010, aninteraction monitoring circuit 4040, a behavior evaluation circuit 4060,and a compensation circuit 4070. In some embodiments, one or more of thecircuits 4010, 4040, 4060, curd 4070 may be structurally distinct fromthe remaining circuits. A person 4006 via a user interface 4004 may usethe computing device 4002 to access a network available content 4009 viaa network 4008. In an embodiment, one of more of these circuits may beimplemented in hardware, software, and/or firmware.

In an embodiment, the activity monitoring circuit 4010 may include atleast one additional circuit. The at least one additional circuit mayinclude a potential relevant content monitoring circuit 4012, a visitoraccess monitoring circuit 4014, a digital content monitoring circuit4016, an encounter monitoring circuit 4018, a viewing monitoring circuit4022, content-type monitoring circuit 4024, and/or transformed contentmonitoring circuit 4034. In another embodiment, the interactionmonitoring circuit 4040 may include at least one additional circuit. Theat least one additional circuit may include a non-link activatedinvolvement monitoring circuit 4042 a URL-independent involvementmonitoring circuit 4044, an involvement character monitoring circuit4046, a behavior monitoring circuit 4048, and/or an involvementinferring circuit 4052.

In a further embodiment, the behavior evaluation circuit 4060 mayinclude at least one additional circuit. The at least one additionalcircuit may include a matters of interest evaluation circuit 4062,and/or an influence trend evaluation circuit 4064. In an embodiment, thecompensation circuit 4070 may include at least one additional circuit.The at least one additional circuit may include a benefit typeevaluation circuit 4072, a benefit measure determining circuit 4074 abenefit determining algorithm circuit 4076, an owner characterizationcircuit 4078, a multiple owners benefit circuit 4082, a benefitevaluation circuit 4084, and/or a benefit appoitment circuit 4086.

In an alternative embodiment, the computing device 4002 may include atleast one additional circuit. The at least one additional apparatus mayinclude an affiliation reception circuit 4090 an information datamaintenance circuit 4097, and/or a data access circuit 4098. Theaffiliation reception circuit may include at least one additionalcircuit. The at least one additional circuit may include an affiliationcharacteristic circuit 4092, and/or an affinity factors evaluationcircuit 4096.

FIG. 88 illustrates an example of an operational flow 4100 representingoperations related to influence evaluation. FIG. 88 and severalfollowing figures may include various examples of operational flows,discussions, and explanations with respect to the above-described system4000 of FIG. 87, and/or with respect to other examples and contexts.However, it should be understood that the operational flows may beexecuted in a number of other environment and contexts, and/or inmodified versions of FIG. 87. Also, although the various operationalflows are illustrated in a sequence(s), it should be understood that thevarious operations may be performed in other orders than those which areillustrated, and/or may be performed concurrently.

After a start operation, the operational flow 4100 includes an activitymonitoring operation 4110. The activity monitoring operation receivesdata indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The activity monitoring operation may be implementedusing the activity monitoring circuit 4010 described in conjunction withFIG. 87.

An interaction monitoring operation 4140 receives data indicative of aninvolvement with respect to possible matters of interest between theperson and a third-party. The involvement is independent of the personactivating a link to a site owned by the third-party that is included inthe first network-available electronic content or in the second networkavailable electronic content. For example, a link to a site owned by thethird-party that is included in an electronic content may includeamazon.com link to Web site, page, or file owned by Amazon.com. Anotherexample of a link to a site owned by the third-party that is included inan electronic content may include a link to a website, page, or fileowned by a product manufacturer, or a political candidate. A furtherexample of a link to a site owned by the third-party that is included inan electronic content may include a linked icon, aGoogle-cost-per-action link, an AdSense link; and/or a ValueClick link.An example of an involvement independent of the person activating a linkto a site owned by the third-party includes the person clicking on alink- in a blog to another to blog or site. This may include the personactivation a youtube.com link in a blog page to see a YouTube video clipof their favorite artist. Another example of an involvement independentof the person activating a link to a site owned by the third-partyincludes the person keyboarding in an address to a site owned by thethird-party. This may include a person seeing an item of interest in ablog page, and then keyboarding in ebay.com to access eBay's site tosearch for that item of interest. The interaction monitoring operationma)y be implemented using the interaction monitoring circuit 4040described in conjunction with FIG. 87.

A behavior evaluation operation 4160 assesses a behavioral influence bythe first network-available electronic content and/or the secondnetwork-available electronic content on the indicated involvement withrespect to the possible matters of interest between the person and athird-part)y. The behavior evaluation operation may be implemented usingthe behavior evaluation circuit 4060 described in conjunction with FIG.87. A compensation operation 4170 facilitates deliver), of a benefit toan owner of the first network-available electronic content and/or anowner of the second network-available electronic content in response tothe assessed behavioral influence. The compensation operation may beimplemented using the compensation circuit 4070 described in conjunctionwith FIG. 87. The operational flow 4100 then proceeds to an endoperation.

FIG. 89 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the activity monitoringoperation 4110 of the operational flow 4100 of FIG. 88. The activitymonitoring operation may include at least one additional operation. Theat least one additional operation may include an operation 4112, anoperation 4114, an operation 4116, an operation 4118, an operation 4122,and/or an operation 4124. The operation 4112 receives data indicative ofa person accessing at least one of a first network-available electroniccontent potentially relevant to the third-part), or a secondnetwork-available electronic content potentially relevant to thethird-party. The operation 4112 may be implemented using the potentiallyrelevant content monitoring circuit 4012 described in conjunction withFIG. 87. The operation 4114 receives data indicative of a visitoraccessing at least one of a first network-available electronic contentor a second network-available electronic content. The operation 4114ma)y be implemented using the visitor access monitoring circuit 4014described in conjunction with FIG. 87. The operation 4116 receives dataindicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The first network available electronic contentincluding digital content transmissible over a computer network. Theoperation 4116 ma)y be implemented using the digital content monitoringcircuit 4016 described in conjunction with FIG. 87. The operation 4118receives data indicative of a person encountering at least one of afirst network-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The operation 4118 may be implemented using theencounter monitoring circuit 4018 described in conjunction with FIG. 87.The operation 4122 receives data indicative of a person viewing at leastone of a first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content. The operation 4122 may beimplemented using the viewing monitoring circuit 4022 described inconjunction with FIG. 87.

The operation 4124 receives data indicative of a person accessing atleast one of a is network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content. The First network-availableelectronic content including at least one of a publicly availableelectronic content a limited availability electronic content, and/or aprivately available electronic content. The operation 4124 malt beimplemented using the content type monitoring circuit 4024 described inconjunction with FIG. 87.

FIG. 90 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the activitymonitoring operation 4110 of the operational flow 4100 of FIG. 88. Theactivity monitoring operation may include at least one additionaloperation. The at least one additional operation may include anoperation 4126, an operation 4128, an operation 4132, an operation 4134,and/or an operation 4136. The operation 4126 receives data indicative ofa person accessing at least one of a first network-available electroniccontent or a second network-available electronic content. The firstnetwork-available electronic content including at least one of a staticelectronic content, and/or a dynamic electronic content. The operation4128 receives data indicative of a person accessing at least one of afirst network-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The first network-available electronic contentincluding at least one of a human perceivable content, a textualcontent, a visual content, an audio content, a music content, and/or agraphic content. The operation 1432 receives data indicative of a personaccessing at least one of a first network-available electronic contentor a second network-available electronic content. The firstnetwork-available electronic content including at least one of anelectronic document, an electronic work, an electronically-storedinformation, a Web document, an email, and/or an instant message. Theoperations 4126, 4128, and/or 4132 may be implemented using the contenttype monitoring circuit 4024 described in conjunction with FIG. 87. Theoperation 4134 receives data indicative of a person accessing at leastone of a transformed first network-available electronic content or atransformed second network-available electronic content. The operation4134 may be implemented using the transformed content monitoring circuit4034 described in conjunction with FIG. 87. The operation 4136 receivesdata indicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The third-party including at least one of a retailbusiness, manufacturer, service provider, vendor, candidate, religiousorder, and/or govern-mental entity.

FIG. 91 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the interactionmonitoring operation 4140 of the operational flow 4100 of FIG. 88. Theinteraction monitoring operation may include at least one additionaloperation. The at least one additional operation may include anoperation 4142, an operation 4144, an operation 4146, an operation 4149,and/or an operation 4152. The operation 4142 receives data indicative ofan involvement with respect to possible matters of interest between theperson and a third-party. The involvement is not a consequence of theperson activating a link address to a site owned by the third-party thatis included in the first network-available electronic content or in thesecond network available electronic content. The operation 4142 may beimplemented using the non-link( activated-involvement monitoring circuit4042 described in conjunction with FIG. 87. The operation 4144 receivesdata indicative of an involvement with respect to possible matters ofinterest between the person and a third-party. The involvement isindependent of the person activating a uniform resource locator thatpoints to a site owned by the third-party that is included in the firstnetwork-available electronic content or in the second network availableelectronic content. The operation 4144 may be implemented using theURL-independent involvement monitoring circuit 4044. The operation 4146receives data indicative of at least one of an activity, interaction,purchase, vote, contribution, and/or relationship involvement betweenthe person and the third-party. The operation 4146 may be implementedusing the involvement-character monitoring circuit 4046. The operation4148 receives data indicative of a behavior by the person with respectto the third-party. The operation 4148 may be implemented using thebehavior monitoring circuit 4048. The operation 4152 receives datauseable in inferring an involvement with respect to possible matters ofinterest between the person and the third-party. The operation 4152 maybe implemented using the involvement inferring circuit 4052.

FIG. 92 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 4100 of FIG. 88. The behavior evaluation operation 4160 may includeat least one additional operation. The at least one additional operationmay include an operation 4162, and/or an operation 4164. The operation4162 assesses a behavioral influence by the first network-availableelectronic content and/or the second network-availableelectronic-content on the indicated involvement with respect to thepossible matters of interest between the person and a third-party. Thepossible matters of interest include at least one of a sale, purchase,membership, signing up for email, vote, and/or enrollment. The operation4162 may be implemented using the matters-of-interest evaluation circuit4062 of FIG. 88. The operation 4164 assesses a behavioral influencetrend with respect to the possible matters of interest by the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or the second network-availableelectronic content on the indicated involvement between the person and athird-party. The operation 4164 may be implemented using the influencetrend evaluation circuit 4064.

FIG. 93 illustrates a further alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 4100 of FIG. 88. The compensation operation 4170 may include atleast one additional operation. The at least one additional operationmay include an operation 4172, an operation 4174, an operation 4176,and/or an operation 4178. The operation 4172 facilitates delivery of atleast one of a compensation, privilege, token, chit, and/or reward to anowner of the first network-available electronic content and/or an ownerof the second network-available electronic content in response to theassessed behavioral influence. The operation 4172 may be implementedusing the benefit type evaluation circuit 4072 of FIG. 88. The operation4174 facilitates delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence. A measure of the benefit determined by at leastone of another person, and/or the third-party. The operation 4174 may beimplemented using the benefit measure determining circuit 4074. Theoperation 4176 facilitates delivery of a benefit to an owner of thefirst network-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence. The benefit is responsive to a benefitdetermination algorithm. The operation 4176 may be implemented using thebenefit determining algorithm circuit 4076. The operation 4178facilitates delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence. The owner of the first-electronic contentincluding at least one of an author, a content author, a putativecontent author, an assignee, a designee, a content poster, a creator, aneditor, an associate, a sponsor, a host, an aggregator, a website owner,a server owner, a holder of an interest, a holder of a controllinginterest, a control group, and/or at least one of a cohort. Theoperation 4178 may be implemented using the owner definition circuit4078.

FIG. 94 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the operational flow4100 of FIG. 88. The compensation operation 4170 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 4182, an operation 4184, and/or operation 4186. Theoperation 4182 facilitates delivery of a first benefit to an owner ofthe first network-available electronic content and a second benefit toan owner of the second network-available electronic content in responseto the assessed behavioral influence. The operation 4182 may beimplemented using the multiple owners benefit circuit 4082 of FIG. 88.The operation 4184 facilitates delivery of a first benefit to an ownerof the first network-available electronic content and a second benefitto an owner of the second network-available electronic content inresponse to the assessed behavioral influence. A difference between thefirst benefit and the second benefit is responsive to an evaluation ofan influence of the first-electronic content and/or an evaluation of aninfluence of the second-electronic content. The operation 4184 may beimplemented using the benefit evaluation circuit 4084. The operation4186 facilitates delivery of a first benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and a second benefit to an owner ofthe second network-available electronic content in response to theassessed behavioral influence. A difference between the first benefitand the second benefit responsive to at least one of a scaling, aweighting, a synthesis, and/or an analysis of an influence of thefirst-electronic content and/or an evaluation of an influence of thesecond-electronic content. The operation 4186 may be implemented..usingthe benefit apportionment circuit 4086.

FIG. 95 illustrates another alternative embodiment of the operationalflow 4100 of FIG. 88. The operational flow may include at least oneadditional operation, such as an affiliation reception operation 4190.The affiliation reception operation receives data indicative of anaffinity of the person. The affiliation reception operation may beimplemented using the affiliation reception circuit 4090 of FIG. 88.

FIG. 96 illustrates a further embodiment of the operational flow 4100 ofFIG. 88. The affiliation reception operation 4190 may include at leastone additional operation. The at least one additional operation mayinclude an operation 4192, an operation 4194, and/or an operation 4195.The operation 4192 receiving data indicative of at least one of anexpress, and/or an inferred affinity of the person. The operation 4194receives data indicative of at least one of an affinity characteristic,and/or an affiliation of the person. The operation 4192 and/or theoperation 4194 may be implemented using the affiliation characteristiccircuit 4092 of FIG. 88. The operation 4195 assessing a behavior atinfluence by the first network-available electronic content and/or thesecond network-available electronic content on the indicated involvementwith respect to possible matters of interest between the person and athird-party. The assessed influence responsive to the received dateindicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or a second network-availableelectronic content; and to the received data indicative of an affinityof the person. The operation 4195 may be implemented using theaffiliation characteristic circuit 4095.

FIG. 97 illustrates an embodiment of the operational flow 4100 of FIG.88. The embodiment ma) include at least one additional operation, suchas an operation 4196. The at least one additional operation 4196 mayinclude an operation 4197, and or an operation 4198. The operation 4197maintains informational data corresponding to the assessed behavioralinfluence. The operation 4197 may be implemented using the informationdata maintenance circuit 4097 of FIG. 97. The operation 4198 providesaccess to informational data corresponding to the assessed behavioralinfluence. The operation 4198 may be implemented using the data accesscircuit 4098.

Another embodiment provides an operational flow for reporting influence.After a start operation, the operational flow includes receiving dataindicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content. The operational flow also includes receiving dataindicative of an involvement with respect to possible matters ofinterest between the person and a third-party. The data indicative of aninvolvement includes a first data indicative of an involvementindependent of the person activating a link to a site owned by thethird-party that is included in the first network-available electroniccontent or in the second network available electronic content; and asecond data indicative of an involvement caused by the person activatinga link to a site owned by the third-party that is included in the firstnetwork-available electronic content or in the second network availableelectronic content. The operational flow further includes assessing inresponse to the first data indicative of an involvement a behavioralinfluence by the first network-available electronic content and/or thesecond network-available electronic content. The operational flow alsoincludes facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence. The operational flow then proceeds to an endoperation.

FIG. 98 illustrates an example computer program product 4200. Thecomputer program product includes a computer-readable signal-bearingmedium 4210 bearing program instructions 4220. The program instructionsare operable to perform an influence evaluation process in a computingdevice.

The process includes receiving data indicative of a person accessing anetwork-available electronic content. The process also includesreceiving data indicative of an involvement with respect to a possiblematter of interest between the person and the third-party. The processfurther includes assessing a behavioral influence with respect to thepossible matter of interest between the person and the third-partyexerted by the network-available electronic content. The assessedbehavioral influence is unresponsive to any involvement between theperson and the third-party that is a consequence of the personactivating a link to the third-party included in the network-availableelectronic content. In an embodiment, for example, the data indicativeof an involvement may include (i) data indicative a first involvementbetween the person and the third-party that not a consequence of theperson activating any link embedded in the network-available electroniccontent to a site owned by the third-party, and of (ii) data indicativea second involvement between the person and the third-party that is aconsequence of the person activating an embedded link in the electroniccontent to a site owned by the third-party. In this example, theassessed behavioral influence is responsive to the data indicative ofthe first involvement, and unresponsive to the data indicative of thesecond involvement. The process also includes outputting the assessedbehavioral influence in a form usable by a process facilitating deliveryof a benefit to an owner of the network-available electronic content.

In an alternative embodiment, the process of the program instructions4220 further includes maintaining informational data corresponding tothe assessed influence 4222. In another embodiment, the process of theprogram instructions further includes providing access to maintainedinformational data corresponding to the assessed influence 4224. In afurther alternative embodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearingmedium 4210 includes a computer storage medium 4212. In anotheralternative embodiment, the computer-readable signal-bearing mediumincludes a communication medium 4214.

FIG. 99 illustrates an example system 4300. The system includes anactivity monitoring module 4310, an interaction monitoring module 4320,an evaluation module 4330, and an compensation module 4340. An), one ormore of these modules may be implemented in hardware, software,firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In an embodiment, atleast one of these modules ma)y be included in a computing device 4305.

The activity monitoring module 43 0 is operable to receive dataindicative of a person accessing a network-available electronic content.The interaction monitoring module 4320 is operable to receive dataindicative of an involvement with respect to a possible matter ofinterest between the person and a third-party. The evaluation module4330 is operable to assess a behavioral influence with respect to thepossible matter of interest between the person and the third-partyexerted by the network-available electronic content. The behavioralassessment is not responsive to any involvement between the person andthe third-party that is a consequence of the person activating a link tothe third-party included in the network-available electronic content.The compensation module 4340 is operable to facilitate delivery of abenefit to an owner of the network-available electronic content inresponse to the assessed behavioral influence.

In an alternative embodiment, the system 4300 further includes aretention module 4352 operable to maintain informational datacorresponding to the assessed influence. In another embodiment, thesystem includes a data management module 4354 operable to provide accessto informational data corresponding to the assessed influence. In afurther embodiment, the system may include a processor 4360, a storagemedia 4362, a display 4364, and/or a communications module 4366.

In another alternative embodiment, the computing device 4305 furtherincludes a computing device operable to communicate with a network. In afurther embodiment, the computing device operable to communicate with anetwork includes a computing device responsive to human input, andoperable to display human perceivable content and communicate with anetwork. The computing device responsive to human input may include auser-side computing device. The user-side computing device may includethe thin computing device 20 described in conjunction with FIG. 1 and/orthe computing device 110 described in conjunction with FIG. 2. In anembodiment, the computing device operable to communicate with a networkincludes a computing device operable to provide electronic content to anetwork. The computing device operable to provide electronic content toa network ma)y include the server device 201 described in conjunctionwith FIG. 3. In another embodiment, the computing device operable tocommunicate with a network includes an intermediate computing deviceoperable to communicate with a network. In an embodiment, the computingdevice operable to communicate with a network includes a networkintermediary device operable to communicate with a network. In a furtherembodiment, the computing device operable to communicate with a networkincludes a computing device under a control of the third-party andoperable to communicate with a network. In another embodiment, thecomputing device operable to communicate with a network includes asearch engine site. The search engine site may include the search enginesite 350 described in conjunction with FIG. 4.

FIG. 100 illustrates an example device 4400. The device includes means4410 for receiving data indicative of a person accessing at least one ofa first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content. The device also includes means4420 for receiving data indicative of an involvement with respect topossible matters of interest between the person and a third-party. Theinvolvement is independent of the person activating a link to a siteowned by the third-party that is included in the first network-availableelectronic content or in the second network available electroniccontent. The device further includes means 4430 for assessing abehavioral influence by the first network-available electronic contentand/or the second network-available electronic content on the indicatedinvolvement with respect to the possible matters of interest between theperson and a third-party. The device also includes means 4440 forfacilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence.

In an alternative embodiment, the device 4400 includes means 4452 forreceiving data indicative of an affinity of the person. In anotherembodiment, the device includes means 4454 for saving informational datacorresponding to the assessed influence. In a further embodiment, thedevice includes means 4456 for providing access to informational datacorresponding to the assessed influence.

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments ofthe systems, apparatus, devices, computer program products, and/orprocesses using block diagrams, flow diagrams, operation diagrams,flowcharts, illustrations, and/or examples. A particular block diagram,operation diagram, flowchart, illustration, environment, and/or exampleshould not be interpreted as having any dependency or requirementrelating to any one or combination of components illustrated therein.For example, in certain instances, one or more elements of anenvironment may be deemed not necessary and omitted. In other instances,one or more other elements may be deemed necessary and added.

Insofar as such block diagrams, operation diagrams, flowcharts,illustrations, and/or examples contain one or more functions and/oroperations, it will be understood that each function and/or operationwithin such block diagrams, operation diagrams, flowcharts,illustrations, or examples can be implemented, individually and/orcollectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, orvirtually any combination thereof unless otherwise indicated. In anembodiment, several portions of the subject matter described herein maybe implemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs),Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors(DSPs), or other integrated formats. However, those skilled in the artwill recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, inwhole or in part, can be equivalently implemented in circuits, as one ormore computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., as one ormore programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or moreprograms running on one or more processors (e.g., as one or moreprograms running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or asvirtually any combination thereof, and that designing the circuitryand/or writing the code for the software and or firmware would be wellwithin the skill of one of skill in the art in light of this disclosure.In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that themechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capable of beingdistributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that anillustrative embodiment of the subject matter described herein appliesregardless of the particular type of signal bearing medium used toactually carryout the distribution. Examples of a signal bearing mediuminclude, but are not limited to, the following: a recordable type mediumsuch as a floppy disk, a hard disk drive, a Compact Disc (CD), a DigitalVideo Disk (DVD), a digital tape, a computer memory, etc.; and atransmission type medium such as a digital and/or an analogcommunication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wiredcommunications link, a wireless communication link, etc.).

Those having skill in the art will recognize that the state of the arthas progressed to the point where there is little distinction leftbetween hardware and software implementations of aspects of systems; theuse of hardware or software is generally (but not always, in that incertain contexts the choice between hardware and software can becomesignificant) a design choice representing cost vs. efficiency tradeoffs.Those having skill in the art will appreciate that there are variousvehicles by which processes and/or systems and/or other techologiesdescribed herein can he effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/orfirmware), and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context inwhich the processes and/or systems and/or other technologies aredeployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed andaccuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardwareand/or firmware vehicle; alternatively, if flexibility is paramount, theimplementer may opt for a mainly software implementation; or, yet againalternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware. Hence, there are several possible vehicles bywhich the processes and/or devices and/or other technologies describedherein may be effected, none of which is inherently superior to theother in that any vehicle to be utilized is a choice dependent upon thecontext in which the vehicle will be deployed and the specific concerns(e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability) of the implementer, any ofwhich may vary. Those skilled in the art will recognize that opticalaspects of implementations will typically employ optically-orientedhardware, software, and or firmware. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that optical aspects of implementations will typically employoptically-oriented hardware, software, and or firmware.

In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that thevarious aspects described herein which can be implemented, individuallyand/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, orany combination thereof can be viewed as being composed of N varioustypes of “electrical circuitry.” Consequently, as used herein“electrical circuitry” includes, but is not limited to, electricalcircuitry having at least one discrete electrical circuit, electricalcircuitry having at least one integrated circuit, electrical circuitryhaving at least one application specific integrated circuit, electricalcircuitry forming a general purpose computing device configured by acomputer program (e.g., a general purpose computer configured by acomputer program which at least partially carries out processes and/ordevices described herein, or a microprocessor configured by a computerprogram which at least partially carries out processes and/or devicesdescribed herein), electrical circuitry forming a memory device (e.g.,forms of random access memory), and/or electrical circuitry forming acommunications device (e.g., a modem, communications switch, oroptical-electrical equipment). Those having skill in the art willrecognize that the subject matter described herein may be implemented inan analog or digital fashion or some combination thereof.

It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, termsused herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of theappended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term“including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” theterm “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term“includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,”etc.).

It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specificnumber of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intentwill be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of suchrecitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimrecitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one suchrecitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases“one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or“an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “atleast one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use ofdefinite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, evenif a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitlyrecited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitationshould typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number(e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without othermodifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or noiserecitations).

Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “atleast one of A, B. and C, etc.” is used, in general such a constructionis intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understandthe convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C”would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone,C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A,B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a conventionanalogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general sucha construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the artwould understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one ofA, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have Aalone, B alone. C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be furtherunderstood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive wordand/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in thedescription, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplatethe possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, orboth terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood toinclude the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”

The herein described aspects depict different components containedwithin, or connected with, different other components. It is to beunderstood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, andthat in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achievethe same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement ofcomponents to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated”such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any twocomponents herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can beseen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionalityis achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components.Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being“operably connected,” or “operably coupled,” to each other to achievethe desired functionality. Anti two components capable of being soassociated can also be viewed as being “operably couplable” to eachother to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples ofoperably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateableand/or physically interacting components and/or wirelessly interactableand/or wirelessly interacting components.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopeand spirit being indicated by the following claims.

1.-32. (canceled)
 33. An influence evaluation method, the methodcomprising: receiving data indicative of a person accessing at least oneof a first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content; receiving data indicative of aninvolvement with respect to possible matters of interest between theperson and a third-party, the data indicative of an involvementincluding: a first data indicative of an involvement independent of theperson activating a link to a site owned by the third-party that isincluded in the first network-available electronic content or in thesecond network available electronic content; and a second dataindicative of an involvement caused by the person activating a link to asite owned by the third-party that is included in the firstnetwork-available electronic content or in the second network availableelectronic content; assessing a behavioral influence by the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or the second network-availableelectronic content in response to the first data indicative of aninvolvement; and facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of thefirst network-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence.
 34. A computer program product comprising: (a)program instructions operable to perform an influence evaluation processin a computing device, the process comprising: receiving data indicativeof a person accessing at least one of a first network-availableelectronic content or a second network-available electronic content;receiving data indicative of an involvement with respect to a possiblematter of interest between the person and the third-party, the dataindicative of an involvement including: a first data indicative of aninvolvement independent of the person activating a link to a site ownedby the third-party that is included in the first network-availableelectronic content or in the second network available electroniccontent; and a second data indicative of an involvement caused by theperson activating a link to a site owned by the third-party that isincluded in the first network-available electronic content or in thesecond network available electronic content; assessing in response tothe first data indicative of an involvement a behavioral influenceexerted by the network-available electronic content with respect to thepossible matter of interest between the person and the third-party andoutputting the assessed behavioral influence in a form usable by aprocess facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of thenetwork-available electronic content; and (b) a computer-readablesignal-bearing medium bearing the program instructions.
 35. The computerprogram product of claim 34, wherein the process further comprises:maintaining informational data corresponding to the assessed influence.36. The computer program product of claim 34, wherein the processfurther comprises: providing access to maintained informational datacorresponding to the assessed influence.
 37. The computer programproduct of claim 34, wherein the computer-readable signal-bearing mediumincludes a computer storage medium.
 38. The computer program product ofclaim 34, wherein the computer-readable signal-bearing medium includes acommunication medium.
 39. A system comprising: an activity monitoringmodule operable to receive data indicative of a person accessing atleast one of a first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content; an interaction monitoring moduleoperable to receive data indicative of an involvement with respect to apossible matter of interest between the person and a third-party; anevaluation module operable to assess a behavioral influence with respectto the possible matter of interest between the person and thethird-party exerted by the network-available electronic content, thedata indicative of an involvement including: a first data indicative ofan involvement independent of the person activating a link to a siteowned by the third-party that is included in the first network-availableelectronic content or in the second network available electroniccontent; and a second data indicative of an involvement caused by theperson activating a link to a site owned by the third-party that isincluded in the first network-available electronic content or in thesecond network available electronic content; and a compensation moduleoperable to facilitate delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence.
 40. The system of claim 39, wherein the systemfurther includes: a retention module operable to maintain informationaldata corresponding to the assessed influence.
 41. The system of claim39, wherein the system further includes: a data management moduleoperable to provide access to informational data corresponding to theassessed influence.
 42. The system of claim 39, wherein the systemfurther includes: a computing device operable to communicate with anetwork.
 43. The system of claim 42, wherein the computing deviceoperable to communicate with a network further includes: a computingdevice responsive to human input, and operable to display humanperceivable content and communicate with a network.
 44. The system ofclaim 42, wherein the computing device operable to communicate with anetwork further includes: a computing device operable to provideelectronic content to a network.
 45. The system of claim 42, wherein thecomputing device operable to communicate with a network furtherincludes: an intermediate computing device operable to communicate witha network.
 46. The system of claim 42, wherein the computing deviceoperable to communicate with a network further includes: a networkintermediary device operable to communicate with a network.
 47. Thesystem of claim 42, wherein the computing device operable to communicatewith a network further includes: a computing device under a control ofthe third-party and operable to communicate with a network.
 48. A devicecomprising: means for receiving data indicative of a person accessing atleast one of a first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content; means for receiving dataindicative of an involvement with respect to possible matters ofinterest between the person and a third-party, the involvement beingindependent of the person activating a link to a site owned by thethird-party that is included in the first network-available electroniccontent or in the second network available electronic content; means forassessing a behavioral influence by the first network-availableelectronic content and/or the second network-available electroniccontent on the indicated involvement with respect to the possiblematters of interest between the person and a third-party; and means forfacilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence.
 49. The device of claim 48, further comprising:means for receiving data indicative of an affinity of the person. 50.The device of claim 48, further comprising: means for savinginformational data corresponding to the assessed influence.
 51. Thedevice of claim 48, further comprising: means for providing access toinformational data corresponding to the assessed influence.
 52. Themethod of claim 33, wherein the site owned by the third party includes:a site owned by a person affiliated with the third party.
 53. The methodof claim 52, wherein the site owned by a person affiliated with thethird party further includes: a site owned by a persons affiliated withthe third party, the affiliation with the third party including at leastone of an assignment, a designation, an association, a shareholder, apartner, a business entity, a sponsor, a host, a relative, a familymember, a holder of an interest, a holder of a controlling interest, amember of a control group, or a cohort.
 54. The method of claim 33,wherein the receiving data indicative of a person accessing at least oneof a first network-available electronic content or a secondnetwork-available electronic content further comprises: receiving dataindicative of a person accessing at least one of a firstnetwork-available electronic content or a second network-availableelectronic content, the first network-available electronic contentincluding at least one of an electronic document, an electronic work, anelectronically-stored information, a Web document, an email, and/or aninstant message.
 55. The method of claim 33, wherein the facilitatingdelivery of a benefit to an owner of the first network-availableelectronic content and/or an owner of the second electronic content inresponse to the assessed behavioral influence further comprises:facilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondelectronic content in response to the assessed behavioral influence, ameasure of the benefit determined by at least one of another person,and/or the third-party.
 56. The method of claim 33, wherein thefacilitating delivery of a benefit to an owner of the firstnetwork-available electronic content and/or an owner of the secondnetwork-available electronic content in response to the assessedbehavioral influence further includes: facilitating delivery of abenefit to an owner of the first network-available electronic contentand/or an owner of the second network-available electronic content inresponse to the assessed behavioral influence, wherein the owner of thefirst-electronic content includes at least one of an author, a contentauthor, a putative content author, an assignee, a designee, a contentposter, a creator, an editor, an associate, a sponsor, a host, anaggregator, a website owner, a server owner, a holder of an interest, aholder of a controlling interest, a control group, and/or at least oneof a cohort.